2<^^yt^ 




<» 



OUR FALLEN HEROES 



AND OTHER ADDRESSES 



H. W. BOLTON, 



AUTHOE OF 



Home and Social Life" — "The Soul's Cry 
"Patriotism" — "Our Fallen Heroes" — 
"Reminiscences of the War" and 
"America's Next War." 



PUBLISHED BY 

H. W. BOLTON, 

409 West Monroe Street, . 
CHICAGO, ILL. 






•Of- 



TO 



The Lovers and Defenders of Our Country, 
This volume is respectfully dedicated 

By the Authob. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, 

By HORACE W. BOLTON, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



The lectures which constitute this volume were 
delivered before patriotic organizations, from time to 
time, with no thought of publishing them, as the field 
seemed so well supplied with patriotic literature. 

And I was slow to believe that there was room for 
a contribution of mine. But being urged to give 
them in book form to the public, I yielded to the 
advice of friends and published the most of them in 
my work called Patriotism, which is now out of print. 

With this explanation, I send this volume forth 
with a prayer that it may awaken a deeper and 
stronger love for the land in which we live, and for 
the preservation of which so much blood and treasure 
have been expended. 

H. W. Bolton. 



(iii.) 



INTRODUCTION , 



I have read with great profit the addresses embodied 
in this volume, and, after perusing thern, felt as one of 
the millions who in 1861-65 showed their love for 
liberty and country. Every young man especially, 
whether native or foreign born, should read patriotic 
utterances, since otherwise he is apt to become in- 
different to the institutions to which he is indebted 
for the freedom he enjoys. The perpetuity of the 
Union depends upon the instruction given the young, 
for if inculcated in youth, patriotism will control the 
actions of manhood, in the event of peril to the 
Nation. The graphic account of what was accom- 
plished by the soldiers of the Republic ; their trials 
and tribulations ; the long and weary marches ; the 
exposure to heat and cold ; the hard-fought battles, 
cannot fail to be interesting to those who were active 
participants in the war for the preservation of the 
Government that it might be handed down unimpaired 
to future generations and left to their intelligent and 
watchful care. The fact should not be overlooked 
that a large part of our present population was born 
since the surrender at Appomattox. Their eyes never 



VI. INTRODUCTION* 

beheld the Stars and Stripes until after the christening 
with the blood of our dead comrades, who sacrificed 
their lives as evidence that the flag really symbolized 
" Liberty to all men." Another large portion of the 
people, numbering millions, has come from foreign 
lands since 1865. It is the duty, therefore, of all in 
a position to do so, to instil into their minds senti- 
ments of loyalty to the Government which shelters 
and protects them, and affords them the same oppor- 
tunities in the race of life that are accorded the native 
citizen. 

My prayer is that the God of the living and the 
dead may bless your efforts to foster the spirit of 
patriotism, and thus aid in the continuance of the 
grandest Republic on the face of the earth. 

Yours in* F. C. and L., 

James A. Sexton. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. Centennial - - - 9 

II. Fallen Heboes - - 34 

III. Genebal Geant -....- 56 

IV. Genebal Logan 74 

V. Genebal Sheeidan - 90 

VI. Genebal Ceook ------- 109 

VII. Soldiees' Attitude - 125 

VIII. Genebal Sheeman ------ 145 

IX. Genebal Sheeman, by Genebal 0. O. Howabd 167 

X. Wisdom and Wab, by Rev. Db. Geobge H. Cobey 177 



(vii.) 



And yet there's another country, still vaster than all these; 
Encrowned by lofty mountain chains, and washed by mighty 

seas; 
No bigotry of worship holds her conscience in duress, 
No mystery veils her altars, no censor curbs her press; 
With her women of the fairest that bloom beneath the sky, 
With her soldiers of the boldest that ever dar?d to die, 
With her flag, in glory, spreading o'er the earth and o'er the 

sea. 
Like a portent to the tyrant, like a rainbow to the free; 
With the nations flowing toward her, as to a promised rest— 
This, this, of all the lands I saw, is the land I love the best: 

— Everhart. 



(VHI.J 



PATRIOTISM. 



CHAPTER I. 

CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.* 

This is an eventful hour in the history of a great 
nation — a moment, into which is crowded an hun- 
dred years of constitutional life, with success suf 
ficient to demand the suspension of business, the 
ringing of bells, the booming of cannon, the chant- 
ing of choirs, and the best efforts of the public 
speaker. 

We meet ,as Americans and patriots, sixty mil 
lion strong, to unfurl the stars and stripes over a 
blossoming earth and beneath a smiling heaven. Xp 
us this flag is the emblem' of liberty, equal rignts 
and national unity, 

As patriots we have reason, on this fourth day of 
July, 1889, to rejoice, and to make some public dem- 
onstration of our love of native land. Great love 
for native land is strong among all nations, even 
causing the natives of Asiatic islands, on beholding 
a banana tree in the public gardens of Paris to be so 

^Delivered at Aurora, 111., July 4, 1889. 



10 PATRIOTISM. 

stirred as to baptize the plant with tears; and 
even the Esquimaux becomes so wedded to the 
frigid zone of his native land as to think the blubber 
and ice cabin preferable to the gifts of more en- 
lightened nations and refined society. But why 
does the heart so tenaciously cling to that spot on 
earth where first it learned to live ? And we answer, 
it is because of the friendships and blessings which 
were all the world to us. But true patriotism is 
more than that, for there are and always have been, 
true patriots who were born on other shores. 

The nations waited for the history of our own 
country to develop the patriotism that should make 
the sons of all climes and all lands one in defence of 
the institutions of a free republic. 

We go not back into ancient history for illustra- 
tions of true patriotism. Tell us not of the Persian 
invaders who entered Greece. Speak not to-day of 
the heroism displayed at Marathon, for we have 
heard of Bunker Hill, Lexington, Princeton, Shiloh, 
Fair Oaks, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain and 
Richmond We have read of, and learned to admire, 
the spirit of\ patriotism displayed during the war of 
the Rebellion by the gunner Wood, on board the 
Cumberland, while in combat with the Merrimac in 
Chesapeake Bay, who, having lost both legs and 
arms, and being offered assistance, as his ship was 
going down with her flag still flying, cried out: 
"Back to your guns, boys; give 'em fits ! Hurrah 
for the flag !" We have seen more than a half-mil- 



PATRIOTS. 11 

lion men leave the shops, mines and schools of our 
land to fight for the maintenance of liberty and 
equal rights, believing that our only safety was in 
unity; and in the spirit of Washington, have watched 
with jealous anxiety the union of the States, believ- 
ing it to be of infinite moment, discountenancing 
every suspicion or suggestion of division. In the 
days of Abraham Lincoln, being citizens by birth 
and by adoption, we said, "Amen," to his proclama- 
tion, and went forth to save the Union, " Constitu- 
tion or no Constitution." 

We glory in the spirit of Lieut. Cummings, who, 
while gliding up the Mississippi river and passing 
the Vicksburg batteries, had one leg torn from him 
by a rebel bail, but refused help, and said, ' ' Get the 
ship past the batteries, boys, and they can have the 
other leg if they want it." Such is the patriotism 
of American history. 

In the fiery furnace of war men have learned to 
love this their native and adopted home more than 
all others. Yes, the stubborn Englishman, the 
heroic Scotchman, the enthusiastic Irishman, the 
hearty German and the fun-loving Frenchman join 
in singing: 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing 
Land where my fathers died; 
Land of the Pilgrims' pride; 
From every mountain side 

Let Freedom ring. 



1 2 PATRIOTISM. 

There are good reasons for the strength of our patri- 
otism. This is a home-land ; a land in which all may 
find protection in the exercise of a good conscience. 
Territorially we have room for all who desirt to 
come and share with us. Should China and I^ia 
conclude to move over with their seven hundred 
millions, we need have no fear. 

We leave the first centennial round of the ladder 
of progress, with a population of more than sixty 
millions, thus ranking among the first nations on the 
globe. In less than a century we may lead all. Our 
population is at least twenty times as great as it was 
one hundred years ago; but of course we cannot cal- 
culate upon the same rate of increase for the. next 
century. 

Relatively, there will be a decrease in the number 
of immigrants, as it is quite probable that the spirit 
of enterprise or the love of adventure will carry 
away the successors of our frontier population to 
Africa and South America, as the continents of the 
future. 

At the present rate of increase our population m 
the year 2000 will exceed eight hundred millions; 
but if the lowest estimates are used as a basis for 
calculation, the beginning of the twenty-first century 
will show an aggregate population of about two 
hundred and eighty millions, 

Whether so vast a population can be sustained 
within our present limits is a problem for the future; 
But for one 1 entertain no doubt that the sustaining 



NATIONAL ABILITY. 13 

power or the United States will be adequate to the 
support of a population of one billion, without any 
impairment of the enjoyments and comforts of so- 
cial and domestic life. 

1£ we assume that the habitable area' of the 
states is two million, five hundred thousand square 
miles, an average population of three hundred to the 
square mile would give an aggregate of seven hun- 
dred and fifty million souls. 

Our capacity may be further measured by con- 
sidering the fact that if the present inhabitants of 
the United States could be transferred to Texas, the 
average would not exceed three hundred persons to 
the square mile. 

These facts do not in any way measure or limit 
the possibilities of comfortable existence, for this 
reason: The diversity of human pursuits, due to 
science, art and a wise public policy, is making 
a constant and appreciable addition to the capacity 
of the country to sustain human life. 

The sixty millions within our borders are better 
fed, better clothed and better housed than were the 
three millions who inaugurated the Revolutionary 
war. It is not improbable that this progress may 
continue for a long and indefinite period. We have 
thus in one hundred years rushed to the foremost 
rank in population, wealth and annual savings; and 
we leave behind the nations of the earth on this our 
centennial celebration. Nearly as many English- 
speaking people dwell on these shores as in all the 



14 PATRIOTISM. 

world beside. In public credit, in agriculture and 
manufactures s America leads the civilized world. 
Rer territory is not half occupied. 

To-day we have in wealth forty-five billions, and 
our annual manufactures amount to one billion, one 
hundred and twelve million pounds sterling, or 
nearly half as much as all Europe. 

Float on, our Hag ! Beneath thy folds the wealth 
of numberless millions awaits the coming of unborn 
generations. 

Again, this rapid growth does not endanger the 
nation's wealth, for God has stored in the hills and 
along the prairies immeasurable wealth in crude 
forms. Two hundred years have just consumed 
the underbrush, while the grand old forests of 
timber remain growing faster to-day than we cut 
and burn, 

The lead, zine ? copper, tin, silver and gold are 
but a matter of search: the best and largest quanti- 
ties are not yet readied. The materials for quarry- 
ing, smeltiDg and coining are still in large quanti- 
ties. The sunshine of other days, when beast and 
bird occupied the land, is now burled in Pennsyl- 
vania, Mississippi and Arkansas in 180,000 square 
miles of condensed light and power, and God hath in 
these last days shown us how to set the current on 
fire all about us. 

Drive on, ye men of thought ! Build your mag- 
azines, harness the steeds of the sky. We have 
minerals and power sufficient to make this nation the 



ONE CITY. 15 

city of gold, with pearly gates and foundations of 
precious stones, 

Our freightage, surpasses that of Great Britain, 
France and Italy. Pennsylvania, with her railroad 
system, transports more tonnage than ail Great Brit- 
sun's merchant ships. And yet there is a demand 
for more railroads to do the work of that State. 

Our flag floats over a land that is more beautiful 
than any other. Behold her rivers, placid and tur- 
bulent, threading the prairies of the West. What 
other land has a city like Chicago, a thousand mile3 
inland, with wharves where ships from all parts of 
the earth may lie. Thus described: " I have been 
in Chicago six weeks. I shall take a look at it after 
awhile, when this feeling of stupidity, produced by 
amazement, partially wears off. But I shall not de- 
scribe it. I am not writing books just now. If the 
Palace hotel, the Flood building, the new Chronicle 
building, the Baldwin, the Nevada block and all the 
palaces on Nob Hill were suddenly lifted up and set 
down in the midst of Chicago in one night, they 
would not be noticed next morning — unless they 
were set down in the middle of the streets, so as to 
interfere with traffic. Miles and miles of Flood 
buildings, groups of Baldwin theatres, townfuls of 
Nob Hill palaces, whole streets of new Chronicle 
buildings, innumerable Occidental hotels, all the ele- 
gant dry goods stores of San Francisco merged into 
one and then reduplicated till you are weary; all its 
restaurants rolled into one and multiplied until you 



16 PATRIOTISM. 

are faint; cable cars going in trains like steam cars, 
with three conductors on each train; four elevators 
in a group, and no use ringing, because one or two 
are constantly ready to carry you up, or bring you 
down; morning papers, noon papers, evening papers 
and extras at midnight: a hundred miles of asphalt 
driveways for pleasure; innumerable streets, so long 
and brilliantly lighted that, standing at any point on 
one of them at night, you will see the parallel rows of 
lights come to a point in either direction, making the 
street look like a long, narrow diamond; granite, mar 
ble, brass, glass, colored crystals, electric lights, gor- 
geousness, brilliance, luxuriousness, magnificence- 
Chicago." A ship starting from New Orleans and 
going up the Mississippi and through her tributaries 
will sail more miles, and go through a greater va- 
riety of scenery, with more that is truly beautiful, 
than is found in a voyage around the globe. 

Fly over this grand western world, and look on 
acres in rolling splendor, voiced with vegetation that 
blooms and blossoms like the rose. 

Then turn to your mountain peaks, where eternal 
snows crown their slopes, and ice jewels their brows, 
and Switzerland will grow insipid and small. She 
might sit in all her Alpine splendor in the lap of 
Pennsylvania, as a toy for her children. 

Then through your valleys hasten east over mighty 
lakes, to see the granite hills and mountains, scat- 
tered by an Omnipotent handj to beautify the land- 
scape, and for the use of man. 



A FREE PEOPLE. 17 

Friends, tell me not of scenes of beauty beyond 
the ocean, until I have seen the mountains and val- 
leys of New England, the western prairies, the south- 
ern valleys and Pacific slopes. 

Tell me not of Africa's coral-bound shores until I 
shall have seen our own mountains put on their 
autumn robes and snow-white crowns, or shall have 
breathed the balm of Florida's groves. 

This flag is the emblem of freedom. We are a 
free people, and no intelligent man lives among us 
who will attempt to defend a system of slavery of 
any kind. 

A well-known judge, attempting to convince a 
fugitive slave that he had made a mistake, put the 
following questions to him: '"What did you run 
away for?" "Well, judge, I wanted to be free." 
"You had a bad master, I suppose?" "Oh, no, 
berry good mas'r." "Well you hadn't a good 
home ? " "Hadn't I ? You should see my pretty 
cabin in Kentucky." "Had to work hard, then ? " 
"Oh, no, fair day's work." "Well, then, if you 
had plenty to eat, was not overworked, had a good 
home, I don't see what on earth you wanted to run 
away for." "Well, Massa Judge, I 'spect the situ- 
ation am still open, if yo' would like it. " 

The judge did not apply for the position, but be- 
came a convert to abolition, and gave the fugitive a 
five dollar bill, to help him on his way to the land 
of freedom. 



18 PATRIOTISM. 

"Up, all who strike for Freedom's cause ! 

Send forth the thrilling battle cry; 
Quick to the fight — no time to pause— 

The choice is death or victory; 
Give freedom to the toiling slave, 

Or sleep within a warrior's grave." 

Thank God for the songs of freedom ! 

Again, this is a land of schools and churches. A 
man cannot escape their influence if he would. As 
soon as a mother can trust her boy from her pres- 
ence, the bell calls him to school. One hundred and 
ninety-eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-four 
schools open their doors to all classes of all nation- 
alities, at an expense of $74,400,000 annually, and 
the land is flooded with aids to progress. Our pub- 
lications are literally beyond computation, and the 
educational influences of the day are covering the 
hills with blessings all divine. 

Equality ! Once enrolled as a citizen of this 
country, we may go forth hoping to win any posi- 
tion in the gift of the nation, with ten thousand 
agencies awaiting our coming, which offer their un- 
sought council and energy to urge us on our way. 
With us success is privileged. The humblest child 
from the most obscure home under the flag of our 
Union has an equal right to that patronage which 
should make him great among men. Of us Lord 
Bacon spoke when he said: "It remaineth for God 
and angels to be lookers on. " For in an American 
race every man has a right to lead and a chance to 
rule. Birth and age are ruled out. Votes bring in. 



* MEN HONORED. 19 

The slab houses of the East and the log huts of the 
West are still honored, for out from these come the 
boys with convictions and a mother's blessing, to 
take the positions of honor and trust. We look 
back on the men whom we have honored, and we 
speak of Washington, not as a scholar, but as a man 
of force and will such as gave him character and 
standing; of Jackson as the fighter who overruled a 
mother's wish, for she desired that he should preach. 
He would not, but fight he would, and, passing 
through the darkness of 1813, he lived on hickory 
nuts, and would not die uncrowned. Had he failed 
in his election, with the old Jews I should be 
tempted to seek his grave, as they sought John's, 
to see if the earth still moved over him, and if he 
still expected to be President. 

Abraham Lincoln, of our own State, rose to shake 
off the snow that sifted through the chinks of his 
father's cabin, and became the honored bead of this 
great nation. He stirs our hearts to-day as do few 
men in American history. 

What shall we say of our peerless Grant, our 
scholarly Sumner, able Greeley, heroic Garfield, 
brave and patriotic Sherman, Logan and Sher- 
idan, and a long list of other noble men, whose 
names are interwoven with the history of our 
country? 

None of them had opportunity such as is offered 
to the average son of '89, but, entering into life to 
employ the trinity of manhood and the indomitable 



20 PATRIOTISM. 

energy of the true American, they were bound to 
rise by f orGe of their own character. 

This is emphatically a land of industry. With- 
out work we cannot succeed. It matters not so 
much what a man does, so long as it be legitimate 
employment and is well done. Here this lesson is 
taught as under no other form of government. 

Go visit the halls, look on the orchestra. What 
part is most essential ? The leading violinist, who 
with his nimbleness attracts most attention or the 
director who with baton in hand gives direction to 
rhythm and expression ? What of that man swinging 
those heavy sticks and beating that unsightly drum ? 
Is he of no importance ? Certainly he is. He marks 
the time, gives character and support to the melody, 
and is indispensable to the orchestra. 

So in life, we are often more interested and give 
most attention to those preparing for the pulpit or 
for the practice of law, or medicine. Heaven 
knows we need a better class of lawyers, doctors 
and ministers, but that is not enough. We need 
better producers and more of them. 

If the principles of the fathers be maintained and 
the loyalty of the sons continue, the old flag is yet 
to float over wealth, honor and beauty such as his- 
tory has never known. 

Therefore it becomes the true patriot to know of 
the dangers as well as the glories of his home land. 

What are the dangers that threaten the American 
republic most? 



DANGER OF WEALTH. 21 

I should place as chief among the foes that of 
wealth. 

I see vastly more danger from our wealth than 
from our poverty. Mr. Webster once said, after 
traveling through the vast territory of the West: 
"I see before us abundance, luxury, decay and dis- 
solution. " 

It requires no great study of history to see that 
abundance leads to luxury and extravagance, and 
that extravagance begets recklessness, idleness and 
vice. It was so with Greece and Rome. In the 
days of Marcus Aurelius Rome became very wealthy, 
and increased in riches until any governor could 
make himself rich in a year, but they spent their 
money in a way that led to vice, until the kingdom 
became corrupt, and died of its own shame. 

Our wealth is becoming so great as to attract the 
attention of the whole world. Our gold and silver 
mines produce $100,000,000 annually; other mines 
and factories, $500,000,000; while our railroads add 
$250,000,000, and the agricultural interests more 
than $7,256,000,000. 

Every sunrise adds $25,000,000 to our wealth as 
a nation, and men who love money are hastening to 
our shores, where the opportunity for wealth exists. 

It is said on good authority that we have wealth 
in our soil this side of Alaska sufficient to feed 900,- 
000,000 people, and then export 5,000,000,000 
bushels of grain annually. 

Then we turn our thoughts to the wealth under 



22 PATKIOTISM. 

the soil. Between 1870 and 1880 our product in 
precious metals amounted to $732,000,000. The 
United States furnishes more than one-half of the 
gold and silver of to-day, and it is not unreasonable 
to expect that our agricultural resources alone, when 
fully developed, will be capable of feeding two bil- 
lions of people. Truly has Matthew Arnold said: 
" America holds the future." These facts are truly 
wonderful. Our property is valued at more than 
$50,000,000,000— more than enough to buy the Rus- 
sian or the Turkish empire, and the kingdoms of 
Sweden and Norway, Denmark and Italy, together 
with Australia. Great Britain is by far the richest 
nation of the Old World, and yet our wealth ex- 
ceeds hers by over $5,000,000 000. This is found 
in material the quantity of which may be multiplied 
by hundreds of millions. Well may Mr. Gladstone 
say, "The United States will probably become the 
head servant and the great household of the world, 
the employer of the employed, because her servants 
will be the most and ablest." 

These facts are not calculated to win or entice the 
best class of society. The immigration of the last 
decade is not what it was thirty or forty years ago. 
Then they came to our country to find a home where 
liberty and freedom from religious restraints and 
persecutions were promised. They came with prayer 
and hymn-books. As when Columbus, first torch- 
ing the soil, with cross in hand, knelt to kiss the 
earth and offer praise unto God, so the Pilgrims of 



IMMIGRATION. 23 

Plymouth Rock walked on their knees for months 
in devout reverence before God, who had guided 
them over the trackless sea. But to-day Germany 
sends her hungry, and other lands, learning the art 
of Bismarck in solving the problem of poverty, are 
transferring their poor, with the idea that here lib- 
erty means license. A friend of mine, writing from 
New York, says: "Again and again have I seen 
hundreds of people swarm out of ships from Ham- 
burg, Liverpool, Dublin and other ports, without 
food or shelter, without money to buy a meal of 
victuals or a night's lodging. I have seen them taken 
directly from the ship to the almshouse.'* Such 
persons do not understand our institutions and can- 
not appreciate them. They do not know our laws, 
and are therefore unable to intelligently observe 
them, but are here to practice their devices, in view 
of gratifying their own passions and appetites. Let 
me say once and with emphasis, that all who come 
are not of this class. There are grand specimens of 
mankind from all shores in our midst. They have 
an abiding welcome to all the privileges our institu- 
tions afford, but a large percentage are here to man- 
ufacture our rum. 

According to the census of 1880 there are 3,152 
establishments where rum is manufactured, and 
$118,000,000 dollars is invested in this business; 33,- 
689 men are employed as day laborers, and they are 
paid $15,000,000 annually, and the net value of their 
annual production is $144,000,000. Adding the 



24 PATRIOTISM. 

money invested and the wages of the workmen, and 
the income, we have the enormous aggregate of 
$277,000,000. Of the 50,000 men employed in our 
distilleries as distillers, 40,000 of them are foreign- 
ers; and they are also running our saloons. Take 
the business directory of any of our cities, or 
walk the streets of Chicago, New York or Boston, 
and you will find very few Americans in the saloon 
business. If there, they are ashamed to put their 
signs out. Attend a saloon-keepers' convention or 
read in the morning papers a list of the officers. 
Glance over the programme for the day. Go to the 
hall, see who is president, who are the vice-presi- 
dents; they are nearly all foreigners. To be more 
accurate, take Philadelphia, that old Quaker city. 
There are 8,034 persons in the rum traffic, and who 
are they ? Chinamen 2, Jews 2, Italians 18, Span- 
iards 140, Welsh 160, French 285, Scotch 495, En- 
glish 586, Germans 2,179, Irishmen 3,041, Africans 
265, Americans 205. Of this number 3,696 are 
females, all foreigners but one. We are bound to 
look this thing squarely in the face, for, as Mr. 
Gladstone recently said in the House of Commons, 
"We suffer more year by year from intemperance 
than from war, pestilence and famine combined, 
and this scourge, resulting in ruin and death, is car- 
ried on largely by foreigners." 

Our second great danger, it appears to me, is that 
of indifference to the claims of the government. As 
a general proposition, every man claiming home and 



INDIFFEKENCE OF CITIZENS. 25 

protection in a republic should become familiar with 
the laws and institutions of his home and identify 
himself with their supporters. Suffrage to-day 
means more than it ever did before. The elements 
to be controlled and the influences to be directed were 
never so potent as to-day ; and yet this is no longer 
a government for the people or run by the people, 
but for the few, to be run by the few, and in this is 
danger. Too many stay away from the polls, cau- 
cuses and conventions, and we are too largely guided 
by the thoughts of a few leaders. These stay-away 
men are the curse of the land. They are not for- 
eigners but Americans, who complain that their con- 
victions are not fairly represented or expressed. In 
1880 the entire foreign vote was 1,200,000, while 
the registered voters who failed to appear at the 
polls numbered 4,000,000. Where were these men 
to be found ? Eighty thousand of them in old Ohio, 
sons of the Buckeye State; 280,000 in New York; 
195,000 in Pennsylvania. What an army of men to 
fail in time of duty, and the failure to appear in the 
preliminary caucuses is still worse. In New York 
City in 1885 there were 260,000 voters; only 25,000 
of whom appeared in the preliminary caucuses, leav- 
ing 235,000 men who failed to appear in the hour of 
New York's emergency. 

In a republic like this, and in a great city like 
New York, where every man is a prince, and eter- 
nal vigilance is the price of liberty, certainly the 
voters ought to feel that the interest at the polls is 



26 PATRIOTISM. 

paramount to all other interests on the day of the 
election. 

The third great danger, as it appears to me, is the 
sectional feeling that is growing up in this country, 
the creating of new Swedens, Africas, Irelands, Ger- 
manys and Englands. This is all wrong. We want 
one people, one language, one spirit throughout the 
land. Mr. Thomas did us great harm, not inten- 
tionally, but really, when he went abroad to intro- 
duce a new Sweden into this country. For with 
this comes the secret life and plots of the nations 
represented, and anything that strikes against the 
life of our institutions, or the principles upon which 
they are laid, is dangerous, and cannot with safety 
be tolerated. We make no war upon churches or 
religious convictions. Every man has a right to be 
a Methodist, a Presb} 7 terian or a Roman Catholic. 
But palsied be the hand raised to strike at, or the 
tongue moved to declare against, our American insti- 
tutions ! 

We cannot tolerate sectional feeling in this country. 
The flag must be the emblem of liberty, equal rights 
and national unity to every man everywhere. U A 
star for every State and a State for every star." I 
hope the day will speedily come when no other flag 
can with safety be unfurled on these shores. Let 
the stars and stripes float on all occasions and for all 
interests, from sea to sea. Down in the State of 
Maine a very ignorant backwoodsman, having ren- 
dered some service to the Governor, was sent a com- 



A COMMISSION. 27 

mission as justice of the peace. He took it out of 
the post-office, looked it over, and, being unable to 
read it, became alarmed. He thought it a warrant 
against him for some crime, but was soon told that 
it was a commission. "What am I to do with it ?" 
said he. "Why, you are to solemnize marriages, 
and in time of a riot you are to say, "In the name 
of the State of Maine I command order, and that 
you disperse to your homes. " Not long after, this 
justice of the peace was in the city of New York, 
and, walking down Broadway, he encountered an 
immense mob. He at once thought of his commis- 
sion, and, stepping upon the curbstone, cried out: 
"In the name of the State of Maine, I command 
order, and that you disperse to your homes." In 
less than a minute he was knocked senseless and 
carried to the lockup. On being brought before the 
court he answered that he was a justice of the peace 
down in Maine, and produced his papers. A laugh 
went around the court room, and then the judge ex- 
plained that he had no prerogative or rights outside 
the State of Maine. On returning to his home a 
couple waited upon him to be married. He married 
them, and, after pronouncing them husband and 
wife, he said: "Now, this is all right so long as you 
live in the State of Maine, but should you ever ven- 
ture outside the State, this ceremony is not binding. " 
Not so with the dear old flag. Its silken folds 
bring the same blessings of peace and protection to 
the dwellers on the rock-bound shores of old Maine 



28 PATRIOTISM. 

or to the sun-kissed slopes of California, as to the 
dwellers on the ever-green shores of Florida, and the 
snow-clad hills of Alaska. 

It is six thousand miles from the fisheries of the 
Pine Tree State to the shores of our great American 
ice house; and every foot of these six thousand 
miles is represented by the stars and stripes. 

"The union of lakes, the union of lands, 
The union of States none can sever; 
The union of hearts, the union of hands, 
And the flag of our union for ever. 

The union is river, lake, ocean and sky; 
Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die. 
Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel, 
The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal." 

There is still hope for the republic; though evils 
exist, they are soon crushed. Anarchists are 
hanged, boodlers imprisoned, and our murderers, 
though their deeds be perpetrated in high-sounding 
institutions, must flee or swing. The safeguards of 
the nation are to be strengthened by perpetuating 
our institutions. 

First: That of our homes, which measure the na- 
tion's strength more largely than any other; they are 
institutions of learning out of which come the na- 
tion's guards. To-day we have the largest standing 
army on the face of the earth, because the work is 
done in the homes. I do not mean the regular army; 
I mean the standing army made up of 60,000,000 
people, ready at a moment's call to spring into line 
for the nation's defence. 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 29 

If you would destroy the seeds of socialism and 
anarchy, encourage the home-building associations 
of this country. 

For when a man has a home and owns his house, he 
is no longer a socialist or an anarchist. He believes 
in protection and law, because he wants to be pro- 
tected. Philadelphia, through the Home Building 
Associations, has helped 50,000 men to own their 
homes. What is the result ? They have neither 
strikes or boycotting. 

•'Man has many a passage through which he loves to roam, 
But the middle aisle is sacred to the old, old home." 

Let us see to it that we do our part in making 
home an institution for the training of Americans, 
by helping them to that cheer, sunshine and health 
that belongs to an American. 

Secondly: Let us see to it that our schools are 
well provided for. We must not simply look after 
the illiteracy of our country. Our public school sys- 
tem, guarded and protected, will remove all illiteracy, 
and destroy the possibility of breeding hoodlums. 
I hope the day will soon come when every school 
shall be not only a hall of learning, but a center of 
patriotism, in which every boy and girl shall be so 
fully imbued with love of country as to become a 
true defender of the Constitution of the United States 
of America, cheerfully obedient to the laws of the 
land, encouraging purity and honor in public affairs, 
and loyally defending the flag. Then the 198,000 
rooms into which are gathered daily more than 



30 PATRIOTISM. 

18,000,000 boys and girls will become centers of 
power, forbidding the possibility of insurrection or 
rebellion. 

I know my Catholic friends do not see this in this 
light. We make no war upon Catholicism, but will 
not quietly suffer any institution, be it Catholic or 
pagan, to lay hands on this institution established 
by our fathers. 

See to it that such work is done in the schools, as 
shall forbid the possibility of sectarian schools sup- 
planting them. 

Thirdly: The church of this country is becoming 
more and more the educator of patriots. In olden 
times it was said of a Jewish ruler: "He hath loved 
our nation and builded us a synagogue." The 
church is not an institution of any party. It is not 
her prerogative to become in any sense partisan, but 
she is to send forth statesmen, patriots. In her must 
center all the great forces. To-day she is the power 
of all others. In the great wars she has played well 
her part. Here the singing of songs, the offering of 
prayer around one common altar, is doing more to 
make us one, than any other exercise known to men; 
for sentiments woven into the spirit of melody can 
never be eradicated. 

Who can measure the opportunity this hour sets 
before the young man or woman with health, culture 
and high ideals. 

I turn to the dawn of the twentieth century. The 
camp-smoke of the pioneer flees before the burning 



A NEW TEMPLE. 31 

rays of intelligence; dogmas no longer clog the feet 
of the racer, and the imaginary line no longer binds 
the thought of man. Then shall be builded a tem- 
ple, whose dome shall shade the seas, into which 
shall be brought the achievements of art, science and 
religion, and out of which shall come an inspiration 
and love that in their influence shall make us more 
than conquerors in Him who loved us, and called us 
to be kings and priests unto the most high God. 

"The fields are white to harvest, 
The days are speeding by; 
Go forth again, ye workers, 
And work until ye die. 

Yea, the night of death approaches, 

And angels in the sky 
Repeat the chorus ever — 

Go, work, and never die." 




Chaplain McCABE. 






THE FLAG. 

THE FLAG AS WITNESSED BY CHAPLAIN M'CABE IN 
LIBBY PRISON, JULY 4TH, 1863. 

A company of our comrades resolved to celebrate 
the Fourth of July in Libby prison. Committees 
were appointed to perfect the arrangements. Chap- 
lain McCabe had charge of the music. The com- 
mittee on flags asked u How shall we secure a flag?" 
This was an all-important question, for none could 
celebrate without a flag. At last one suggested the 
possibility of making one. But where was the 
bunting to be obtained ? One of the officers said, 
" I will give my nether garment." The material 
for stars and stripes was readily secured by others. 
The glorious day came but too slowly, and the Fourth 
was celebrated in Richmond as never before. The 
enthusiasm knew no bounds. The cheers and tigers 
at first were suppressed, but soon broke out in a 
thunderous applause. Their enthusiasm was so 
great as to arrest the attention of the guard without, 
and suddenly he stepped within the room. He was 
awed and silenced at the sight of a Union flag raised 
in the capital of the Rebellion by prisoners of war. 
In sullen silence he stepped forward, and with sac- 
rilegious hands tore down the emblem of a nation's 
pride. But he could not wrench from the hearts of 
those poor Union prisoners what to them was the 
emblem of the priceless boon of heaven — love to 
God and native land. 

(33) 



CHAPTER n. 

A nation is at the graves of hor soldiers, in com- 
memoration of their faithfulness.* 

Coming from the busy walks of life to cemetery 
and field, with reverence for the heroic dead, and 
gratitude for the patriotic living, we bring a wreath 
of cypress for the graves of those whose lips are 
sealed — who answer no more to the roll-call among 
the living — and speak a word to those more fortu- 
nate, who fought a good fight, kept a sacred faith, 
won a glorious victory, and live to fight the battles 
of a free and ever-growing people. 

We come to linger amid these graves, which 
arc not simply houses for the dead, but vaults in 
which the nation's power, fame and glory are stored. 
They are still centers of power in cemetery, church- 
yard, lonely lawns, groves and national fields, beau- 
tified and indicated by shafts and slabs, deserted, 
forgotten, and covered with turf, visited for the first 
time for a year — visited by friends with loving 
hearts, and by angels, at the hand of the winds. 
See them coming from the hillside and valley, from 
hot-house and conservatory; coming with flowers — 

*Oration delivered at Galva, 111., Decoration Day, 1886. 
(34) 



OUR HONORED DEAD. 35 

flowers gathered, selected, cultivated; flowers, 
''nature's sweetest gifts" and choicest offerings. 

There are newly-made graves, into which many 
of our most honored comrades have stepped since 
last we met. They were brave, gallant and peerless, 
but they have passed the Appomattox of life. Those 
who were: 

"The pillar of a people's hope, 
The center of a world's desire." 

They have exchanged the corruptible for incor- 
ruption, mortality for immortality, and joined 
Moses and Joshua, Wellington and Cromwell, 
Lincoln and Garfield, and that innumerable throng, 
"whose death was a poem, the music of which can 
never be sung." Alas ! 

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
Await alike the inevitable hour; — 
The path of glory leads but to the grave/' 

Every heart in this broad land ought to respond 
to the call of our commander, and enter into the ser- 
vice of this hour with the same zeal and enthusiasm 
that characterized the days of enlistment, and the or- 
ganization of the armies out of which these men 
have fallen. 

Other lands have had heroes, but ours were more 
— they were saviours, and by their sacrifices have 
saved the greatest land under the shining sun. 

If we glance at the fields upon which great battles 
have been fought and where great wars have been 



36 PATRIOTISM. 

waged, we gain an idea of the immensity of our con- 
flict. In the battles of Napoleon 6,000,000 brave 
men fell. In the thirty years' war of Germany 12,- 
000,000 men bit the dust. In the war under Sesos- 
tris no less than 15,000,000 were slain. In the Jus- 
tinian wars 20,000,000 men never returned to tell the 
story. In the Jewish wars more than 25,000,000 were 
slain. In the crusades led by Peter the Hermit and 
others, it is estimated that 80,000,000 fell. In Rus- 
sian wars historians say 180,000,000 did not live 
through the contests in which they were engaged; 
and if we could see all who have fallen in battle, 
marshalled on this earth, they would outnumber the 
present population again and again. Some statisti- 
cians say if they were stood side by side, they would 
reach around this globe 1,788 times. 

But our actual field of battle was larger than the 
fields upon which any of these wars were waged. 
It seemed as if the world trembled in the wars of 
Cromwell; but our field was larger than all the 
British Isles combined. Wellington touched upon 
the shores of Spain; but Spain, including the Canary 
Islands, is but a little more than half as large as 
Texas. France was a field of war; but France is 
but little larger than Maryland and California. In 
the mighty wars of Italy the world shook; but all 
Italy is but a trifle larger than the State of Nevada. 
Our blood is thrilled when we read of the wars of 
ancient Greece; but Greece is smaller than the State 
of West Virginia. 



A SACRIFICE. 37 

Oar comrades were victors, so were others too 
soon forgotten. Russia, Prussia and England sent 
their millions on to victorious conquests, but they 
went into the service to learn the art of fighting 
— to be soldiers, and share the promotions and hon- 
ors of war. Our boys went to conquer a rebellion 
and save the unity of a nation. 

When Marcus Curtius was told by the soothsayer 
that the chasm opened in the Roman Forum must 
be filled with Romans most valued, he mounted his 
horse and rode away into death, a sacrifice for his 
country. 

But President Lincoln said there must be offered 

75,000 men, and then 100,000, and hundreds of 

thousands of America's best men, to fill the chasm 

of rebellion; and as oft as he called they answered, 

until 500,000 marched away unto death, a sacrifice 

" For the land of the free 
And the home of the brave." 

Let Scott sing of "Clan Alpine," Macaulay tell of 
Horatius holding the bridge, and Tennyson write of 
the "Light Brigade"; but what Scottish chief, Ro- 
man warrior or English veteran ever sacrificed with 
American soldiers. 

Their only desire was the death of the rebellion. 
When General Pemberton met his old comrade, 
General Grant, at Vicksburg, and asked for an in- 
terview, that bloodshed might cease, Grant's an- 
swer voiced the feelings of every true soldier: "On 
one condition this blood may cease to flow." "What 



38 PATRIOTISM. 

is that?" "An unconditional surrender on your 
part, General." This spirit filled the ranks, as well 
as the officers. 

A chaplain of the late war, Mr. Lyford, passing 
through the cars after the famous battle of the Wil- 
derness, saw a wounded man making great ado. He 
had lain on the field three days and nights, unat- 
tended. Said the chaplain, "My son, many a boy 
would have rejoiced if he could have come out of 
that fight as well off as you are. " "Oh, chaplain, 
you misapprehend me. I am not mourning over my 
wounds, but they say my leg must be amputated; 
if so, I cannot return and see the final victory." 

A poor boy, dying, leaning against a tree, when 
one of his comrades took his canteen and wet his 
lips, revived to say, ' 'Mother ! Jesus ! " Then, 
with his last strength, he pushed away the comrade, 
saying, "Follow the flag," — choosing rather to die 
alone than have the flag trail in the dust or suffer 
defeat. Heroic boy ! His record is on high. 

John Jordan said, in reply to General Garfield's 
query, "1 made no trade with God for life." "What 
do you mean % " said the General. ' 'I mean, I will 
carry that message, sir. " 1 have seen these men cut 
in pieces, torn in twain, die on the cold ground, and 
taken their last farewell, but never a murmur. 

We remember them not simply because of Peters- 
burg, Gettysburg and Richmond — not because they 
were soldiers, victors, brave and heroic. They were all 
these, and more — they were martyrs. They died 



THE AMERICAN SOLDIER. 39 

for us, for the national honor that was threatened. 
For this they shall be honored in the far-off future; 
and as the boy stops in his history at Pompeii, to 
honor the soldiers buried in its gateway by Vesu- 
vius' mad freak, so our children's children will stop 
in the gateways of Richmond, Petersburg, Vicks- 
burg and Pittsburg Landing, and honor the stately 
forms of the American soldiers who fell rather than 
leave their posts, and as every schoolboy remembers 
to honor John Maynard for taking Elijah's chariot 
that others might stay, believing it: ■ 

"Better, like Hector, on the field to die, 
Than, like a perfumed Paris, turn and fly." 

We come to speak of American soldiers, and to 
cover their graves, as Moses covered the burning 
bush and the speaking mountain, with a history that 
shall inspire the prophets of state until hope is lost 
in the full fruition of brotherly love. 

Again, we recall the lives and deeds of others, 
who suffered as much in staying at home, as those 
who went to battle. 

At the close of a meeting held in the in- 
terest of the War, in Batavia, New York, 
a man with locks white for the grave came to the 
altar, and, taking the speaker by the hand, said: 
u My first son was slain at Vicksburg, my second 
was killed at Chickamauga, my third and last has just 
gone down at Petersburg; and now if the govern- 
ment wants what little property I have, it can have 
it; and then, if it will take the old man, it can 



40 PATRIOTISM. 

have him; better that all should go than that the 
best government God ever gave to man should 
perish." 

Such was the spirit that filled many a breast and 
home, which deserves mention for helping with the 
sacrifice made. 

Again, we forget not our enemies in this service, 
for our fight was not for power to destroy men, but 
for union. True patriotism rejoices not over the 
death of its foe, but in the success of its principles. 
Many a night was spent in making the enemy's 
wounded and captured comfortable. All night we 
have watched by the wounded enemy, waiting for 
the coming surgeon. A scene in the life of our la- 
mented President, whose life and death has employed 
so much of our thought for the last year, is given 
by his biographer. When Rosecrans fought the bat- 
tle of Chickamauga, he decided that Thomas must 
be informed of the situation. Generals Garfield and 
Gano, and their orderlies, set out for a dash into the 
camp, and were met by the enemy. Both orderlies 
were killed; Gano was wounded and his horse 
killed, and Garfield's horse wounded twice. On 
that ride, in such an hour, he sees a hut, out of 
which crawls a number of Southern soldiers, sick 
and dying with hunger. Gen. Garfield stops and 
asks, "What can 1 do for you ? " 

"Don't come near, we have the small-pox; but 
give us some money to get bread, lest we die ! " 

True to the spirit of a soldier, he throws them his 



A NEW GENERATION. 41 

wallet with its contents, and dashes away, saying, 
"Farewell; God bless you ! " 

This spirit may have prolonged the war; but 'twere 
better to do right and suffer, than to do wrong and 
find release. 

"Better or worse — the facts are historic and unal- 
terable. All questions of what might have been 
done are settled by the lapse of time. The Chick- 
ahominy, Rappahannock, Shenandoah, James, Poto- 
mac and Mississippi are written all over and along 
their banks with blood, and monuments that tell 
what was done; not what might have been. 

A generation has been born and bred in the South 
since we asked our conquered brothers to come back 
and share with us; a thousand interests have devel- 
oped that claim our attention; and there remains but 
one thing for us to do, and that is well expressed in 
an old hymn: 

To serve the present age, 
My calling to fulfill. 

Temples and institutions of learning crown our 
hills; while the generation born since the war, and 
now in the majority, needs the patriotism such an 
hour begets. If there were no words spoken, or 
songs sung; an hour among the heroic dead, with 
muffled tread and silent prayer, would impress us 
with a sense of their self-sacrifice, and inspire a 
heroism the age needs. None can move among the 
disembodied spirits of such men without profit. To 
go again in imagination in search of water to slake 






42 PATRIOTISM. 

the thirst of a dying comrade; to note the tear of joy 
falling over his unwashed cheek, as we took his last 
farewell, is to put on anew the spirit of other days. 

This is a service more catholic than others of simi- 
lar claims. The nation turns from its busy marts to 
the mountains, whose ragged brows offer flowers for 
decorating the graves in the valley, regardless of 
distinctions, political or religious. 

We listen alike to one common call of indebted- 
ness, to those who fell in defence of the principles 
that make this a land of liberty. 

And, with the spirit of the sisters of old, we cover 
the nation's graves with flowers too dear for other 
use. We come, at the call of our leaders, removed 
from all criticism by law, coming "with no blast of 
war blown in our ears, to imitate the tiger," but 
with peace in all our borders, prosperity in all our 
land; a smiling heaven above, a flowery mat beneath, 
and hope infinite in gifts filling our hearts. We 
come to praise God for all the past, and for the 
spirit that offered 500,000 men a living sacrifice in 
the hour of peril. 

But let us not forget the price of liberty, nor suf- 
fer our citizens to become indifferent to its claims; 
for if we fail to transmit the patriotism of the fath- 
ers, this nation will drift into the regions of indul- 
gence and doubt; and when the last scarred veteran, 
with empty sleeve and false limb, has gone to his 
grave, you will cease to recall the lessons taught by 
the history of the past. 



ONE DAY. 43 

A day among the graves of our honored dead, 
with this generation is, therefore, of untold worth to 
us. Silence your orators, muffle your drums; put 
away all regimentals, if you please, but the grave 
cannot be silenced. The veteran feels as he cannot 
feel elsewhere. He hears the bugle-call, and leaves 
his comrade again. He bears the cry of the wounded, 
and takes the farewell message. 

This day, at Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, 
Petersburg and Richmond, thousands recall the con- 
flicts of the Rebellion ; and every throb of the heart 
is creative of that patriotism so essential to the pres- 
ervation and well-being of a free government. Thus 
our homes are made better, and home interests be- 
come dearer than life itself. What would the Ethi- 
opian do in his sandy desert but for his devotion, 
arising from the fact that a service teaches him that 
God made his home, and entrusted angels with the 
forming of all the rest of the earth? 

The Norwegians, proud of their barren summits, 
write upon their currency, ''Spirit, Loyalty, Valor ;" 
and whatever is honorable, let the world learn it 
among the rocks of Norway. 

The sight of these regimentals, flags and graves 
translates us to the day of sacrifice; and as we climb 
the rugged mountain for flowers, and the higher 
mountains of thought, our love burns for this our 
beloved land. 

God grant that the spirit of '76 and '61 may fill 
the hearts of all this generation with that devotion 



44 PATRIOTISM. 

that watched, fought and prayed the victories down 
upon us. Oh, may our prayers take on the spirit 
of Him who died in our stead; that when these or- 
ganizations cease, and the last veteran sleeps, the 
principle of devotion to right may live and lead oth- 
ers, with willing hands, to bring out the flags, torn 
by "lead long lost," in honor of American soldiers. 
Then in the far-off future, some angel will sing, 
"They never fail, who die in a good cause;" their 
country glorifies their names, and memory embalms 
their heroic deeds. 

But there are clouds to-day, that a June sun can- 
not burn away. A brother, whose youthful form 
shared my bed and mother's good-night, is sleeping 
in an unknown grave, visited by strangers and bap- 
tized with a stranger's tears; and this is true of many 
who, to-day, have not the sweet consolation of honor- 
ing their dead and decorating their graves; for they 
know not where they lie. Perchance old ocean's 
restless waves are now murmuring a requiem over 
their unmarked resting places. Thousands sleep on 
rebel soil, and 

"Sorrow and love go side by side; 
Nor height nor depth can e'er divide 

Their heaven- appointed bands. 
Those dear associates are one; — 
Not till the race of life is run 

Disjoin their wedded hands." 

The prayers of this land will, to-day, have a new 
motive, touched upon by the spirits of those who will 



OBLIVION. 45 

rest in unknown graves until the last trumpet of the 
archangel shall arouse the sleeping dead. 

But this service should not end in selfishness. The 
spirit is too catholic and divine. We owe it to oth- 
ers; to the memory of the fallen. 

Out of sight, out of thought, is cruel and selfish. 
They suffered for us many days of weariness and 
pain; and shall not we spend one of three hundred 
and sixty-five in respect to their memory ? Can we 
be true to our manhood and withhold such service ? 
It is only doing unto others, as we would that they 
should do unto us; for there is an inherent desire in 
every soul to be remembered. The mounds of Mex- 
ico and the far west, the w T ell-tombs of Peru, the 
memorials of Palestine and the songs of the poets, 
all stand out in proof of this desire. 

What more cruel than to be forgotten by our 
friends and comrades; our names and deeds to find no 
mention ? The mariner flings his farewell kiss, with 
a "Remember me." The soldier wrote in his blood, 
"Remember me." And we all say: 

' Death shall not claim the immortal mind; 
Let earth close o'er its sacred trust, 
Yet goodness dies not in the dust." 

Our divine Lord silenced the murmuring throng 
at His anointing, with words of commendation co- 
extensive with the gospel He preached. 

Rising higher, and entering the secret chamber of 
His own soul, we find him framing a memorial ser- 



4:6 PATRIOTISM. 

vice, to perpetuate His own memory throughout all 
time: "This do in remembrance of me." 
In this He voiced the chorus of nature: 

" There seems a voice in every gale, 
A tongue in every flower, 
Which tells, O Lord, the wondrous tale 
Of Thy Almighty power. 

The birds that rise on quivering wing 

Proclaim their Maker's praise; 
And all the mingling sounds of spring 

To Thee an anthem raise. 

Shall I be mute, Great God, alone, 

'Midst nature's loud acclaim ? 
Shall not my heart, with answering tone, 

Breathe forth Thy holy name ? 

All nature's debt is small, to mine; 

Nature shall cease to be; 
Thou gavest proof of love divine — 

Immortal life to me," 

In view of this law of desire, history has been, 
and is being, written. For this, the halls and galleries 
are filled with familiar faces and forms. 

And in obedience to this claim we come here, with 
music and flowers, to say to our comrades, "We 
remember thee. Thou shalt never be forgotten." 

The names of George Washington, Abraham Lin- 
coln, the anniversary of Independence and Decoration 
Day, will never disappear from American history 

Though the old blood-stained roll will waste, this 
service will perpetuate itself so long as the princi- 
ples for which our comrades died are cherished. 



THE FUTUKE. 17 

This organization will soon be gone. Every form, 
once clothed in blue, will have passed from our sight; 
and no children of soldiers can close the wasted 
ranks; no bread-box nor marble slab will then mark 
the graves of soldiers. Gettysburg and Arlington 
will be alive to other interests; while angels look in 
vain for forms, and cease to whisper, "He was 
loved. " But the service will live when these cheeks 
are pale in ashes; memorial days will be brighter 
and American soldiers more honored. They will be 
respected more and more, as the future unrolls itself. 
He who said, "Remember Me," will never cease to 
scatter flowers over the sacred dead; and this nation 
will never get so busy as to forget its martyrs. The 
scarlet shroud, and the torn flag will live while his- 
tory publishes its secrets; and when the questions 
are settled, and on the principles "for which they 
fell,*' a temple shall be builded for liberty, justice and 
religion, whose dome shall overshadow the land 
from the Pacific to the Atlantic; and hundreds of 
millions gather here with fruits of industry, art, 
science, learning and religion. Then universal free- 
dom shall honor the founders and saviours of this 
land by remembering their graves. 

We have reached the day of greater conquests on 
broader fields, with more subtle enemies. 

When the war closed, all were so tired of its ways 
that they were ready to do almost anything for 
peace, and mistakes were made; everybody seemed 
touched by our angel of peace. 



48 PATRIOTISM. 

The victors pitied their enemies; and, with a mag- 
nanimity that appears nowhere else in history, we 
said, ''Brothers, come back and share alike with us, 
and let us be friends, and try again." 

But the friends of a lost cause were in a different 
attitude; and when they had rallied from their 
shock, they appropriated the offer to make it the 
cause of another battle; and to-day they are gaining 
in the halls and at the ballot-box, what they lost in 
the war. 

The leaders talk of a lost cause, but cherish the 
same spirit. They honor the most prominent rebel 
of the country as a returning conqueror; while he, 
with the flippancy of a modern infidel, tells the 
world that the rebellion of '61 was for a righteous 
cause, and we are called upon to pay equal honors 
to the boys in blue and those in gray. 

Shall this open the eyes of the North ? If not, 
what will ? Gentlemen, we have a work yet in this 
country; and the boys who fought in blue must 
stand together, and by their friends, until peace 
reigns and men love peace in righteousness. 

Would it not have been better for North and 
South to have held the conquered territory under 
discipline for ten or fifteen years, and given them 
to feel some responsibility, before they came back to 
the rights of citizenship? Yes; but that day has 
gone by. 

We are this side of a civil war, and the partisans 
are scattered and dying. Twenty years more will 



FUTURE PEOBLEMS. 49 

dissolve associations, and leave only here and there 
a lonely soldier. 

Then let us grapple the priceless commodities left 
us; and remember that to have lived in the nine- 
teenth century in America, will be an awful account 
to meet in the roll-call of eternity. 

With 60,000,000 free spirits to be educated in re- 
publican and New Testament ideas, so that they 
may govern themselves and abide in safety, will re- 
quire statesmanship of the highest character. 

The machinery for subduing the wild prairies and 
forests, employing the tides, controlling the ener- 
gies, marshalling the wealth, distributing the reve- 
nue, is vast and complete; but how to utilize it is 
yet a matter of study. 

To educate the 2,000,000 persons now in our 
midst, unable to read their ballot, and yet holding 
the balance of power — who control thirty-two sena- 
torial seats and 138 electoral votes, that can at any 
presidential election change the life of more than 
200,000 employes, ought to call us to action. The 
turning of the rum and tobacco interests and forces, 
now representing $1,474,000,000 of wealth from the 
channel of sorrow, waste and death into the chan- 
nels of enterprise and prosperity, by the opening of 
the gates of the whole world to our manufacturing 
interests, is also very important. 

The mingling of nationalities in political freedom 
is upon us. How shall we make the African, Ital- 
ian, German, Irishman, Frenchman, Indian and Nor- 



50 PATKIOTISM. 

wegian into Americans; and so assimilate their pecu- 
liarities into the body politic, as to strengthen our 
republican institutions, is a momentous question. 
Now they are factors for party quarrels, and are 
bought by politicians, in seeking for the promotion 
of selfish interests. 

When I recall that in 1880 there were 6,679,943 
persons of foreign birth in our land, representing 
twenty-two kingdoms and forms of government; 
almost 2,000,000 from Ireland, bringing that jeal- 
ousy arising from their peculiar relation to Scotland 
and England; and nearly 3,300,000 unable to speak 
our language, and utterly ignorant of Anglo-Saxon 
rules; and when I remember that no other nation 
or kingdom on which the sun shines confers citizen- 
ship so recklessly, and the fact that we are growing 
more lax to duty, I shudder. 

In 1844 a judge was tried and removed from office 
in Louisiana for issuing 400 certificates of naturali- 
zation in one day, claiming to have examined 800 
voters as to their age, character and residence in 
that time. For this, Judge Elliot was removed from 
office. Twenty years later, in New York, one judge 
made in one day 800 voters; and in 1869, 8,468 cer- 
tificates were issued, and ten witnesses testified to 
the age, character and residence of all; one man 
claiming to know, personally, 2,162 worthy of citi- 
zenship; and neither of these parties was impeached. 
' 'Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. " 

This mighty tide of immigration now used by 



MARCH OF LIBERTY. 5 L 

politicians for party purposes, and often in a way 
that leaves the material like old iron, worthless to 
society until melted down and recast, must be met by 
Christians, who will mould them into princes ; for truth 
and righteousness, liberty and truth, must prevail. 
An eminent countryman of ours once said: "Stop 
the march of liberty ? " As well might the boys of 
Boston mount the State House steeple some lustrous 
night, and call on the stars to stop in their courses. 
Gently, but irresistibly, the greater and lesser bear 
move around the pole; Orion, with his mighty trail, 
comes up the sky, and the Bull, the Heavenly Twins, 
the Crab, the Lion, the Maid, the Scales, and all that 
shining company pursue their heavenly march night 
and day. The urchins in their lofty places grow 
tired, sleepy and ashamed, while liberty moves 
steadily onward. 

So live, my comrades, that you may increase the 
honor of those of whom the poet sings: 

On fame's eternal camping-ground 

Their silent tents have spread, 
While glory guards with solemn round, 
The bivouac of the dead. 



For those no death bed's lingering shade; 

At Honor's trumpet call, 
With knitted brow and lifted blade, 

In Glory's arms they fall. 

— Holmes. 

Upon a nations grateful heart, 

They're written down by memory's pen; 
And time shall never dare erase 

The deeds of patriotic men. 

Barker. 

Let holy tears bedew the graves 

Of those who fell in fight; 
Let marble stones above their bones, 

Salute the morning light; 
Let History write in golden books; 

Let bards with song enshrine; 
Let women chant the name of Grant, 

And the glory of the Line ! 

— Everhart. 

Gashed with honorable scars, 

Low in Glory's lap they lie; 
Though they fell, they fell like stars 

Streaming splendor through the sky. 



U. S. GRANT 



When the stars shall wane out from the sky 
Then the name of a Grant shall die. 

—Barker. 

Above all Greek, above all Roman fame. 

—Pope. 

Unbounded courage and compassion joined, 
Tempering each other in the victor's mind, 
Alternately proclaim him good and great, 
And make the hero and the man complete. 

— Addison. 

Another veteran sinks to rest; 

His earthly pilgrimage is o'er, 
His last dread battle now is fought, 

And he has made a happier shore. 

When recollection leaves her throne, 
When liberty and life are not. 

When ancient chaos holds its reign, 
Then veterans shall be forgot. 

— Barker. 

How shall we rank thee upon glory's page? 
Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage. 

—Moore. 



(liv.) 




Gen. U. S. GRANT, 



CHAPTER III. 



2, 1885.* 

"Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." 
This is one of the few scenes of Old Testament rec- 
ord used by our Lord, in unfolding His system of 
salvation. Its age gives it strength and character; 
for time clothes events and characters of value with 
power to command the attention of thoughtful men, 
as no other ordeal can. 

We stand in the presence of an old tree, through 
whose branches the winds of a century have swept, 
as in the presence of a historian. It has the secrets 
of a century. Birds and beasts have found a shel- 
ter in and beneath its branches. It speaks of God 
in every fibre; and every leaf is a leaf in God's vol- 
ume. Yes; age adds value. So in the works of 
men, wrought in keeping with right — age adds to 
their value. Those grand old works of the masters, 
whose fingers have long since found rest in the 
earth, are becoming more and more valuable. Each 
year adds to their worth. 

By the same law, this picture becomes valuable to 

*Sermon on the death of Grant, preached at Martha's 
Vineyard, August 2, 1885. 

(56) 



Circumstances and man. 57 

the teachers of to-day: Wrought in the studio of 
Moab, while Israel was on a march through the wil- 
derness, it passed through the prophetic fires — suf- 
fered the criticism of the poetic and philosophic 
ages, until the coming of the Son of Man, who em- 
ployed it without revision or comment, to confound 
a Jewish rabbi. 

So the event of the past week, closing forever 
the earthly career of our peerless conqueror, becomes 
more and more a matter of interest and study for the 
student of military achievement and national strength; 
for "None but himself can be his parallel." 

Twenty-nine years ago our great, heroic chieftain 
was unknown, even to the Governor of his own 
State, who said to Mr. Washburn, "Illinois has 
money enough, and men enough, but no one man of 
skill and military genius sufficient to organize and 
drill her soldiers." 

4 'Call Capt. Grant, of Galena." 

"Capt. Grant? " said Gov. Yates; "Who is Capt. 
Grant?" 

Thus our dead hero waited to be lifted up, and 
brought to notice before the world, that men might 
see him, and know of his power. 

None can, by searching, find out man, until circum- 
stances of sufficient importance lead him to disclose 
the secrets of his own power. 

Grant was not a creator of circumstances; had not 
opportunities sought him, the world would have 
been ignorant of the gifts God stored in him. 



58 PATRIOTISM. 

Like the gold stored in the hills, he lacked the 
ability to disclose himself. 

No one could have suspected the designs of Provi- 
dence, in selecting him to be sent to West Point. 

But when the opportunity presented itself, he be- 
came mightier than Hercules, who crushed the two 
serpents sent to destroy him in his cradle; for he 
conquered himself and the reputation his dark days 
brought to him, and was ordained with the ointment 
of war. 

Entering the storm, almost unknown, he eagerly 
sought for such fields as Donelson, Shiloh, Vicks- 
burg, Chickamauga, The Wilderness, Spottsylvania, 
Petersburg and Appomattox; and ever after was 
known as the hero of Appomattox. 

Thus in four years a man, comparatively unknown, 
has come to be one of the best known men in the 
world, by being lifted up. 

In keeping with this, we find that certain princi- 
ples, after sleeping for ages, undisturbed, in the 
pathway of nations, have suddenly developed into 
factors in the world's progress. 

History is replete with illustrations of this fact. 
Take the mission of electricity, w T hich was a matter of 
discourse as early as 600 years B. C. ; and yet it 
slept undeveloped and undisturbed in the pathway 
of man for centuries, waiting for some brain with 
force enough to lift it. The world waited for the 
voice that now speaks; but waited in silence, employ- 
ing birds, horses and steam to carry news. Not un- 



ELECTRICITY. 59 

til the sixteenth century did men know of its power; 
and only in the nineteenth did man lift it up, and 
turn the attention of the race towards its wonders. 
No; it must wait until Morse could persuade an 
American Congress to try the experiment. He, 
with convictions all-controlling, conquered the in- 
difference of that whole body, and led them to 
action. Yet in all the centuries electricity was the 
same — the free gift of God to man — waiting to speak 
and burn, when once intelligently employed. This 
principle holds good in all conditions of life known to 
man; it holds true concerning the Man Jesus, 
promised in the seed of woman. He waited in the 
pathway of the race, with blessings all divine, while 
suffering millions went mourning down to death, 
ignorant of the Christ; and yet every man, woman 
and child, when born of God, and initiated into His 
service, expects to reveal Him at once so that every 
hearer shall accept Him. 

He must be lifted into power. This is a matter of 
vast importance; for most men make gods like unto 
themselves; and, knowing their own weakness, they 
stumble at the power of God. Now I suppose Gen- 
eral Grant was as willing to crush out the rebellion 
when Governor Yates first commissioned him as 
when before Vicksburg, or Richmond, or when he 
marched down upon Lee in 1865; but he had not the 
power given him at the hands of the authorities, and 
the confidence of the people. His power was not 
simply in his commission. Had he been commis- 



60 PATRIOTISM. 

sioned commander-in-chief in the first place, the peo- 
ple would have looked on him as inexperienced; and 
watched his undertaking with grave doubts. But, 
having filled each successive position in a way that 
gained and held the confidence of the people, when 
he took the position and called for troops, they were 
forthcoming without question; and had the rebellion 
lasted, men would have continued to have confidence 
in his ability. 

He cannot be hidden; his name is heard every- 
where. He left the war fitted for the Presidency; 
and the presidential office, after two terms, to receive 
honor at the hands of kings and princes of the earth; 
but nothing in all his career gave him a stronger 
hold upon the civilized world, than his last conflict 
with death; for in that he had only one purpose — 
holding the grim monster at bay until he should 
complete his memoirs, and thus place his family be- 
yond the reach of want. 

In this he illustrates the life of our divine Lord, 
who had all the willingness needed in saving this 
world; He had all the power, in that He was God, 
and was Son of the King of power, and Prince of 
peace; bat it became Him in bringing many sons to 
glory to be made perfect through suffering — a Sav- 
iour, though slain in the purpose of God before the 
foundation of the world. He must ascend the stair- 
case of miracles from Cana to Bethany, in order that 
He might be made perfect in His Saviourhood. He 
must stand amid the Jews at the grave, and exhort 



ABIDING POWER. 61 

and speak of life; climb the mountain, that the world 
might hear from heaven God's approval and com- 
mission. Peter, James and John heard the voice in 
the clouds, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." He must 
walk upon the sea, travel the dark cypress and enter 
the grave, in order to turn its key and take death, 
hell and the grave with Him in His flight to glory. 

It was this that gave his words abiding power — 
that will cause them to be remembered in the wast- 
ing firmament, when Plato's definitions shall be for- 
gotten. This will lift Him above all those philoso- 
phers who spoke, to court criticism. He said must 
and shall, with no corrections in the second edition. 
Of this Nazarene it is written: u He spake as one 
having authority." 

This question of power may not appear to you in 
its full significance; you may never have felt your 
utter inability to fill a given position. 

I shall never forget an attempt to carry from the 
battle-field a comrade whose limbs were shattered; 
throwing his arms about my neck and baptizing me 
with his blood, I started; but after having carried 
him a short distance, found it impossible for both to 
escape. The missiles of death flew thick about us; 
when he kissed my unwashed cheek, whispered his 
farewells for mother, and then said, ''Sergeant, 
you cannot carry me; we shall both be taken; 
lay me down, and you escape; you are wil- 
ling—you would if you could; but you have 



62 PATRIOTISM. 

not the strength." Oh, how I longed for the 
necessary power to do as I desired for my dying 
comrade. Then, for the first time in my life, did I 
realize my weakness. No one can ever tell what 
the constant effort and unceasing anxiety of the late 
General Grant was during the year 1863-4; watched 
by scheming politicians and jealous subordinates, 
and filled with a sense of responsibility such as his 
conception of national unity and sense of right 
must have given him. It was not to conquer the 
enemy and enslave them, but to bring about a con- 
dition of peace, such as would establish confidence 
north and south, east and west, and thereby main- 
tain the glory of the nation. 

The strength of a nation is in its power to main- 
tain the confidence of its people under all circum- 
stances. 

Let me give you an illustration, which is neither 
new nor original: 

In the Persian form of government there were 
peculiarities, such as made it impossible for a king 
to revoke a decree. It must remain unaltered 
through all time. 

This is the perfection of law; and could it have 
been enacted in perfect wisdom, would have secured 
safety and security to the Persians under the reign 
of a perfect king. But neither perfect wisdom nor 
perfect manhood was found in the law-makers, 01 
the executive powers. The king, moved by a com- 
pany of jealous men, made a decree that none should 



PERFECT LAW. 63 

pffer prayer to any save himself, not knowing on 
whom it was to fall; and Daniel, his friend, whom 
the king loved, was made the subject of restraint. 
Daniel called upon his God, and thereby became the 
subject of punishment. Though the king loved him, 
and labored until the going down of the sun, he 
could not save him, and keep the law unto the main- 
tenance of confidence in the kingdom. Nothing 
short of that power which controls the laws govern- 
ing the fires, and holds the beasts in subjection, 
could save Daniel. The king must throw him into 
the den of lions, and thereby keep the law. But God 
could, and did, save him, carrying him safely through 
the den of lions without injury to the lions, for he 
belonged to another kingdom, and the lions were 
reserved for the next victim. So God's laws are 
irrevocable; made in view of the eternal security of 
the just and obedient. A violation of any one of 
these laws, passed unnoticed, would compromise 
the whole system of God's government. Among 
the many laws of God is found this: "The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die." That law must be kept; the 
honor must be preserved, or confidence in all the 
code is compromised. Sinners must be thrown un- 
der the law of death; the purity and sanctity of 
heaven is in question. 

General Grant was unselfish in his devotion and 
loyalty to America, his native land. He inherited a 
Puritanic faith; and, as the Eev. Dr. Fawcett, of 
Aurora, 111., has well said, u He was a Christian, as 



64 PATRIOTISM. 

well as a patriot. To a company of young men 
who called upon him at his home in Galena, just 
before their starting for Europe, he said: 

'Gentlemen, never forget that you are citizens of 
these United States, and be as careful of the good 
name of your country as you would be of your 
home.' 

Truly, from this hour, with these words and 
memories, we will love our country more. 

General Grant was a Christian. He possessed 
that broad, philanthropic spirit, and that unselfish 
generosity of soul, that is born of a Christian faith; 
and that ungrudgingly contributes its meed of 
merit to high and low, rich and poor, conspicuous 
and obscure. After the fall of Fort Donelson, when 
the soldiers, in an exuberance of delight, were glory- 
ing over the accomplished victory, General Grant 
sat quietly and unmoved in the midst of their shouts, 
and after a little he quietly raised his head and said: 
'Comrades, we must not forget that it is God who, 
gives us victory.' Standing high above envy 
or jealousy, having no personal purposes to serve, 
but only a desire to do his duty before God and his 
country, he contributes with the most liberal gener- 
osity to the merit of the generals, great and small, 
who assisted in the restoration of the Union. On 
that memorable Fourth of July, after the fall of 
Vicksburg, when dispatches of congratulation were 
reaching him from all great men and all cities of the 
North, and when his subordinates were casting their 



A CHRISTIAN. 65 

praises at his feet, he looked coolly around upon his 
adulators and said: 'Let us not forget the brave 
soldiers who have done the watching and the fight- 
ing. The glory belongs to them.' Thus, ever and 
always unmindful of himself, with Christian spirit 
he gave praise to others. It was this spirit that 
prompted him on the day when General Lee stood 
before him and offered him his sword — -a token of 
surrender. General Grant said: 'General Lee, 
keep that sword; you have won it by your gal- 
lantry. ' And when at the hour the Union soldiers 
were wont to show signs of rejoicing over the glori- 
ous victory and the return of peace, the great- 
hearted, the warm-hearted, Christian-hearted Grant 
requested that they abstain from all expressions of 
joy, saying: 'These are our countrymen and our 
brothers again.' No pomp, no show, no parade, 
but a broad Christian manhood, doing unto others 
as he would they should do unto him. 

General Grant possessed a clear intellectual con- 
ception of the benefits of Christianity to his own 
country, and freely stated them. At the time of the 
marriage of his daughter, in a conversation with 
Bishop Simpson and others, he said, pointing to the 
Bible that lay before him : 'It is the Bible that makes 
sacred and pure the homes of our people.' In a 
conversation with him after his return from 'around 
the world,' I asked him of the mission fields of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in China. He gave me 
a full description of three of our missions in that 



66 PATKIOTISM. 

country, and then added: 'In China I learned to 
appreciate what Christianity has done for my own 
country.' General Grant had such a faith in Jesus 
as the Saviour and Comforter of men, that he went 
to Him in prayer in the hour of his sorrow. In a 
conversation with Bishop Gilbert Haven he said, in 
speaking of his early departure from home: 'My 
mother taught me when a child to go to God with 
my sins every night, and I have never forgotten it.' 
Edward D. Mansfield, in his life of the General, says: 
'His earliest training was by a Christian mother, 
and the influence of that training is seen every day.' 
When in his tour around the world, he reached Jeru- 
salem, his friends proposed to give him a grandfete. 
'No,' said the hero, 'no ovation to me in the place 
where my Saviour was crucified.' 

General Grant had a Christian faith that led him 
to hope and pray for a resting-place in heaven. The 
other day a devoted priest of the Roman Catholic 
Church visited him and told him that all the Christian 
people were praying for him. The general answered: 
'I feel grateful to the Christian people of the land 
for their prayers on my behalf. This applies to all. 
I am a great sufferer all the time, but the facts I 
have related are compensation for much of it. All 
that I can do is to pray that the prayers of all these 
good people may be answered so far as to have us 
all meet in another and better world.' General 
Grant had a Christian faith that enabled him to pa- 
tiently endure suffering and calmly face the realities 



A CHRISTIAN. 67 

of eternity. He has not conversed much through 
these months of suffering, for, like Moses, he was 
a man slow of speech. Doubtless his faithful and 
honest pastor, Dr. Newsman, will have treasured 
away many a rich and comforting word that has not 
yet reached the public ear. But through all the 
days the eye of a nation has been turned to Mount 
McGregor, and there they have seen an example of 
uncomplaining heroism higher and better than any 
the history of the war contains. Vicksburg was a 
great victory; Lookout Mountain was a great vic- 
tory; Appomattox was a great victory, but through 
these weeks of quiet suffering the nation has seen 
how much greater than the achievements of fields of 
battle are the household virtues and simple family 
affections which all men have within their reach. 
They have seen how the Christian lessons at a moth- 
er's knee could arm for greater war and greater vic- 
tory than West Point or years on the tented field. 
4 Go up the mountain and die, and be gathered to 
thy people,' said God to Moses, and now more than 
a month has passed away since a like message fell 
upon the ear of the leader of the armies of Columbia, 
and he slowly, before our eyes, passed up Mount 
McGregor to die and be gathered to his people. 
Let us for a moment ascend the mountain, and stand 
by the bed of the departing hero. It is Wednes- 
day evening, July 22, 1885. The sun has gone 
down to his rest over the western mountains, and 
the evening is cool and bright, and all is hushed 



68 PATRIOTISM. 

and quiet about the mountain home, except the 
twitter of the birds in the lonely pines. The fam- 
ily are gathered at the sick man's side, and the 
sorrowing wife requests Dr. Newman to offer 
prayer. While the prayer is being offered strong 
men bow their heads, and tears flow down the 
cheeks of all. 'Now lay me down to die,' said the 
quiet man, and his request was heard. All night 
long doth love its faithful vigils keep. It is Thurs- 
day morning, July 23, 1885, at 7.04 o'clock. But 
hush, what is this we hear ? Ah ! The leader and 
commander has been gathered to his own people, 
and that which has broken the stillness of the morn- 
ing is the voice of weeping over all the land. From 
the heart of New England, from whose loins his 
fathers came, we hear the voice of weeping; from 
his own native State we hear the voice of weeping; 
from Illinois, his adopted State, we hear the voice of 
weeping; from the far-away South comes the voice 
of mourning; from over the mountains comes the 
voice of mourning. That throb which you hear is 
from over the sea, for England stands with bowed 
head. From the fisherman's hut at the seaside, from 
the frontierman's cabin in the far west, we hear the 
voice of weeping. Under the arches of the great 
cathedral, and through the open windows of the 
humble western church, one requiem of music floats 
upon the morning air — 'The minor strains of sor- 
row, for a soldier is dead.' Grant, the general; 
Grant, the faithful citizen; Grant, the trusting 



CALLED OF GOD. 



69 



Christian, has been gathered unto his people, while 
the soldiers of Columbia, in weeping columns, march 
to the beat of muffled drum. The heart of a great 
nation would give the ashes of their leader a resting 
place in some new Westminster at Washington, 
where pilgrims might visit his tomb for ever. 'And 
die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be 
gathered unto thy people. ' Standing on the sum- 
mit of Mount McGregor I look up, and, following 
the path of light until it reaches the gate of the 
heavenly city, I look within, and there, amid the 
exulting freedmen of all countries and all climes, I 
see Columbia's three worthies — Washington, Lin- 
coln and Grant." 

So our unconquerable hero has gone forward, un- 
til at last he has been called to mingle in the Court 
of the Most High, and when the roll has been called 
for the last time, when the last reveille has been 
sounded, when the last battle has been fought, the 
honored name of Ulysses S. Grant will be found on 
the unchanging pages of history as one whom God 
raised up for a special work; and history will show 
how nobly was that work done, how fearlessly were 
our armies led to victory by the greatest military 
leader of modern times. A leader who battled not 
for the advancement of his own interests — not that 
he might be at the head of an empire, but prompted 
by his love of right, he fought that the millions in 
bondage should be slaves no more, and for the 
triumph of right and the preservation of the Union. 




Gen. JOHN A. LOGAN, 



JOHN A. LOGAN 



He lives on just the same as before; 
This is only the blouse that he wore. 

— Barker. 

Life that dares send 

A challenge to his end, 

And when it comes, say, "Welcome, friend! 

— Crashaw. 

When all the blandishments of life are gone, 
The coward sneaks to death the brave live on. 

— Sewell. 

Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed; 
Who does the best his circumstance allows, 
Does well, acts nobly; angels could do no more. 

— Young. 

He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 

— Bailey. 

Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere; 
In action faithful, and in honor dear; 
Who broke no promise, served no private end, 
Who gained no title, and who lost no friend. 

—Pope 



(lxxii.) 



CHAPTER IV. 



ADDRESS — JOHN A. LOGAN. * 

"And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they 
buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the 
sons of David; and all Judea and the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem did him honor at his death." 

A celebrated Russian once said: "Cursed is the 
nation that has no great men to govern its affairs." 
Another, commenting on this saying, said: " A repub- 
lic needs .good men more than she needs great men. 

To-day our republic turns from the grave of one 
of her great and good men. Our Hezekiah is dead, 
and his body is laid in the sepulchre, while the 
nation honors him. 

General John A. Logan was a great man. He 
was a unique, self-made American. Wherever he 
appears — in home, lodge, post, caucus, convention, 
camp, battle-field, legislative hall or church, he was 
John A. Logan, with no attempt to be other than 
himself; and, as it is written of Hezekiah of old, so 
will it be chronicled of Logan: "Whatsoever he be- 
gan to do, he did it with his might, and prospered." 

His death leaves a vacancy, never to be filled. 
The nation will go on, and all her interests will be 

* Address — ' John A. Logan," — delivered Sunday morning, 
December 27, 1886. 

(74) 



GENEROUS. to 

cared for, for God is at the helm, and this people, 
many of whom loved him more than they can love 
any man "now living, love the land he loved and the 
cause he fought for more than all, and will arise froin 
this sorrow to do as he did. 

It seems fitting that meetings should be held in 
all parts of this great land, and that honor should be 
given him at his death. He belonged to the nation; 
and it is truly fitting that we who live in Chicago, 
where his name is a household word, where his pres- 
ence was always occasion for happy greetings, where 
his name appears on the records of God's militant 
church, and where it is hoped his dust will he in- 
terred, should speak of his achievements; note his 
virtues, and mourn his loss. 

As a man, he was generous even to a fault. I 
think it would have been a virtue had he been more 
chary of his gifts, his services and sacrifices. We 
speak of his honorable poverty as though it were to 
be courted and cited for young men to emulate. I 
cannot look upon it in this light. I glory as much 
as any man in this nation in the integrity which kept 
his hands clean and his character pure; but do we 
want to brand every man who by prudence, fore- 
thought and industry has secured a fortune, with 
dishonesty and impurity ? 

Nay, nay; nor would our honored dead approve of 
this way of putting things. It was his great heart that 
gave, when prudence would have dictated otherwise. 

In ten thousand homes to-day they will take down 



76 PATRIOTISM. 

a familiar picture and look through their tears at the 
man who shared with them because of their fellow 
feelings as soldiers. How many widows and or- 
phans in this land to-day are the recipients of help 
from the government because John A. Logan was 
their friend ? They paid the petty lawyer; but who 
thought of paying him, or when did he think of 
taking aught from their pittance ? This character- 
istic of his nature opened the way for innumerable 
demands upon his time and energy, that must have 
hastened his flight and cut short his work. I heard 
a letter read from his pen within a week, dated De- 
cember 6. Everybody claims the attention of great 
men; and they forget how many are making de- 
mands on one man; and sometimes we feel slighted 
because they do not give us more time, money and at- 
tention. Friends, remember, in a republic where all 
positions are secured by the patronage of the people, 
no public man can give any one person his undivided 
attention, and we are working our great men to 
death — robbing them of their home comforts, their 
means, their strength and their friends, and the na- 
tion of their lives. 

He was full of sympathy. His great nature was 
touched and moved at the sight of suffering. This 
gave him a place in the hearts of the million soldiers 
and their families, now living, that no other man has, 
or can secure. If you have watched the telegrams 
made public since his death, you will approve of this 
statement. 



CONVICTION. 77 

He was a man of conviction. He did what he be- 
lieved to be right, for the sake of right. He was a 
Democrat at the commencement of the war. He 
favored and supported Douglas, and did his best to 
elect him; but when Lincoln was declared elected, 
and the disloyalty of the South began to show itself, 
his voice was heard in Congress in defence of the 
Union and the support of Lincoln; and at the 
defeat of our troops at Bull Run, Logan's heart was 
stirred to its very depths. His convictions were at 
white heat, as his speeches show, and the thousands 
enlisted by him during the succeeding sixty days 
clearly indicate. 

His convictions of right were so strong that no 
temptation was sufficient to sway him from the path 
of integrity. In 1880 he believed that Grant ought 
to be nominated for the third term; and many think 
he might have secured the nomination for himself 
at that time, but for his fidelity to his old com- 
mander and his unwillingness to give up the fight. 
This gave him the confidence of thoughtful men, and 
their tribute of praise is heard to-day. 

General Grant said: "At the first outbreak of the 
war some of the people of Illinois joined the south- 
ern army; many others were preparing to do so; 
others rode over the country at night, denouncing 
the Union, and made it as necessary to guard railroad 
bridges over which national troops had to pass in 
southern Illinois as it was in Kentucky, or any of the 
border slave states. Logan's popularity in this dis- 



78 PATRIOTISM. 

trict was unbounded. He knew almost enough of 
the people in it by their Christian names to form an 
ordinary congressional district. As he went in poli- 
tics, so his district was sure to go. The Republican 
papers had been demanding to know where he stood 
on the questions which at that time engrossed the 
whole of public thought. Some were very bitter in 
denunciation of his silence. Logan was not a man 
to be coerced into an utterance by threats. He did, 
however, come out in a speech before the adjourn- 
ment of the special session of Congress, which was 
convened by the President, soon after his inaugura- 
tion, and announced his undying loyalty and devo- 
tion to the Union. But I had not happened to see 
that speech, so that when I first met Logan my im- 
pressions were those formed from reading denuncia- 
tions of him. McClernand, on the other hand, had 
early taken strong grounds for the maintenance of 
the Union, and had been praised accordingly by the 
Republican papers. The gentlemen who presented 
these two members of Congress asked me if I would 
have any objection to their addressing my regiment. 
1 hesitated a little before answering. It was but a 
few days before the time set for mustering into 
United States service such of the men as were wil- 
ling to volunteer for three years of war. I had some 
doubt as to the effect a speech from Logan might 
have; but, as he was with McClernand, whose senti- 
ments on the all-absorbing questions of the day were 
well known, I gave my consent. McClernand spoke 



SOLDIER. 7^ 

first, and Logan followed in a speech which he has 
hardly equalled since for force and eloquence. He 
breathed a loyalty and devotion to the Union which 
inspired my men to such a point that they would 
have volunteered to remain in the army as long as 
an enemy of the country continued to bear arms 
against it. They entered the United States service 
almost to a man." 

As a soldier, he won his greatest victories. No 
man was more valiant than he, none more cour- 
ageous. 

There seems to have been some who looked upon 
him with doubt when he appeared among Unionists; 
but his bravery, valor and fidelity during the long 
struggle, from '61 to '65, silenced all enemies and 
fixed him in the heart of the republic as "The Vol- 
unteer of the West." 

He was born to be great. As a leader, he had 
physical courage that never failed him, and coupled 
with this was a moral courage that made him often 
unconquerable, and a will which made him the chief 
character among the volunteers of this country for 
all time; and when all else that he did or said is for- 
gotten, his war record will be cited with pride by 
children's children. 

In this he not only had the courage to face danger 
undaunted, but he made himself a leader of me*i by 
laying his plans so carefully and thoughtfully as to 
inspire confidence. 

The army saw at a glance that their leader took in 



80 PATRIOTISM. 

the situation, that he worked by well-matured plans, 
in which he himself had such perfect confidence that 
they accepted the situation and followed wherever 
he led." 

In the famous charge at Atlanta, when McPher- 
son fell and the army halted, broke and were 
ready to run, Logan received orders from 
Sherman to assume command of the army 
of the Tennessee; a staff officer says, "He bowed 
his head and said, 'Would to God I were better 
qualified to fill the place he filled so perfectly. ' " 
This inspired confidence, and putting spurs to his 
famous black stallion, "Old John," he rode rapidly 
to the line of the Seventeenth corps, where he ar- 
rived in time to save the day. When he arrived, 
the lines of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth were 
crumbling away. Dashing down the line of battle 
till he reached the right, Logan reined in his foaming 
horse with such force as to throw the animal back 
on his haunches. Then, riding up to a color- bearer 
and seizing the flag, he rode to the front and center 
of the line and cried: "Will you hold this line with 
me ? " "Yes, yes ! " and "Logan leads ! " went up 
from ten thousand voices. "Then keep in line and 
advance. We'll whip and drive them to the sea." 
Each man felt that Logan in the lead was worth an 
army corps to fill the gap in the lines; the faltering 
nerved themselves for one more struggle; laggards 
and stragglers came from behind rocks and trees 
and fell into line, and, with the cry, "Logan leads ! " 



FORTY ROUNDS. 



81 



they hurled the rebels back, drove them into At- 
lanta, and, by a splendid exhibition of personal 
bravery and power over demoralized troops, only 
approached by that of Sheridan at Cedar Creek, 
defeat was turned into victory, and Atlanta was 
practically secured, with eight thousand rebel dead 
to attest the fierceness of the fight. 

When this was over, Sherman felt obliged to ap- 
point Howard as commander of the Army of the 
Tennessee, which I always regretted. Hooker re- 
signed, but Logan returned to the Fifteenth corps, 
to share with his men, and on July 28th he led the 
famous Fifteenth in charge, and continued victorious 
in every fight until September 2, when Atlanta fell. 

An incident is related, showing how he secured 
the corps badge. One day an Irishman was asked 
what their badge was. Smiting his cartridge-box, 
he said: "There is my badge, with forty rounds in 
it, sir." General Logan heard it, and at once 
adopted it as the badge for the Fifteenth corps; so 
from that time a cartridge-box, marked "Forty 
Bounds, " was their corps badge. 

This was characteristic of the man. He was in 
the war to conquer. When pressure was brought 
to bear on him, in 1862, to leave the army and ac- 
cept the nomination for Congress, he refused, and 
said, ' '1 have entered the field to die, if need be, for 
the government; and I never expect to return to 
peaceful pursuits until the object of this war has 
been accomplished. 



82 PATEI0T1SM. 

A friend of his says when Logan wanted to charge 
upon the enemy's ranks in the Georgia campaign, 
McPherson ordered him to retreat, and build up 
fortifications and protect his men. Logan urged, 
protested, and did all that a subordinate could do to 
be allowed the privilege of fighting, and history 
proves that he was right. But he obeyed his su- 
perior officer, and the night following, his friend 
said: U I undertook to sleep with him in an ambu- 
lance, but sleep I could not ? nor rest, such was the 
restlessness of that great soul, that, like a war-horse, 
he struggled all night to be free." 

As a politician, he has led well, and been true to 
his friends and manly with his enemies. Everybody 
knew where to find him, and just what to expect 
when he was found. 

He was simply a straightforward fighter for the 
right, as he saw it. I have not always agreed with 
him, but always admired his defence of positions 
taken, for when he had given his heaviest blows, 
he stood up to receive the returning blow, with a 
manliness commendable. 

He was never malignant nor vindictive. He was 
a partisan; and as such, defended his party with all 
his power, which is commendable. The first thing 
for any man to do when he finds he can no longer 
defend the church or party of which he is a mem- 
ber, is to sever his connection, and find a home else- 
where. This he will do if he be an honest man, and 
such was our brother. 



STATESMAN. 83 

The Confederate soldiers say: "He was a warm 
friend, a brave enemy, and an honest man, and we 
lay upon his coffin the memorial, not indeed of those 
who loved him during his life, but of those who, in 
his death, recall only his virtues." Those stirring 
virtues were numerous and positive. Of an ardent 
nature, he did nothing by halves. Ambitious he 
was, undoubtedly, but his aspirations lay in the 
direction of patriotic advancement and elevation, and 
sought no devious routes or unmanly advantage. 
During an age of corruption his han ""s were clean, 
and his career shows how he stood the ordeal of a 
national political campa:pn without dishonor, com- 
ing out of the contest with an untarnished reputa- 
tion, and more respected than when he entered it. 

His civil service compares well with that of the 
best men we have been blest with. He w 7 as not a 
Lincoln, Sumner or Grant, but he was a student of 
sturdy habits. His speeches in the Senate and on 
the stump show him to have been a broad, earnest 
student of men and interests. He knew the Ameri- 
can people, and few men created greater enthusiasm 
in the campaign of 1884 than our lamented comrade. 
Wherever he went few were ever given a better 
hearing or had more influence in leading men to act 
in harmony with their thought. 

His great effort in the Fitz John Porter case was 
his masterpiece, showing a force of argument, illus- 
tration and eloquence that surpasses that of any year 
in his whole career, which is a lesson to all men in 



84: PATRIOTISM. 

public life who are relaxing their hold, losing their 
influence, and retiring, because they have reached 
the dead-line of fifty. Here was a self-made man, 
in his sixty-first year, reaching his climax with a 
reserve force that promised better works the next 
time, had he lived; and occasion called. 

When General Logan's death was announced to 
him, James G. Blaine thus briefly summarized his 
character: u General Logan was a man of immense 
force in a legislative body. His will was unbending; 
his courage, both moral and physical, was of the 
highest order. I never knew a more fearless man. 
He did not quail before public opinion when he had 
once made up his mind, any more than he did before 
the guns of the enemy, when he headed a charge of 
his enthusiastic troops. 

In debate he was aggressive, and I have had occa- 
sion to say before, and I now repeat, that while 
there have been more illustrious military leaders in 
the United States, and more illustrious leaders in 
legislative halls, there has been no man, I think, in 
this country, who has combined the two careers in so 
eminent a degree as General Logan." 

He was a Christian. When we have said all that 
could be said for him as a man, husband, father, 
friend, soldier, politician and statesman, we must 
admit that he was more than all these, for these 
were but the results. He was a Christian. Said 
Dr. Edwards, who knew him well: "He claimed 
not to be a model in personal consecration, or in the 



CHRISTIAN. 85 

profounder experiences of the spiritual life, but we 
believe him to be a modest, honest, unpretentious 
Christian citizen. Political competitions are cruelly 
unsparing, and General Logan's very church rela- 
tions have been subjects of criticism among men who 
would have made a political trade with Judas, if the 
latter had but promised his casting vote. From our 
own professional and personal standpoint in our 
church, we have seen that which compelled faith in the 
Christian sincerity and unquestionable genuineness 
of John A. Logan. In the ardor of public move- 
ment and the earnestness of pressing issues, we have 
sometimes differed from him, but never in anything 
that for an instant impeached his character, or gov- 
erning motive." 

His pastor and friend, Dr. F. M. Bristol, says: "No 
man ever more devotedly cherished the principles and 
admired the character of Chnct than General Logan; 
but no Christian was ever more sincerely modest in 
assuming that name. He could not be a hypocrite 
in religion any more than in politics. He never 
spoke lightly on sacred themes, nor made a jest of 
other men's honest convictions, whether they agreed 
with his own or not. He was liberal and high- 
minded enough to grant to every other man the same 
right of independent opinion which he claimed and 
exercised for himself. He made no profession of 
saintliness; but he made proof of his manliness. 
From the mortal, human side, home was his religion, 
duty his creed; his country was his altar, his sacri" 



86 PATRIOTISM. 

fice his own blood, and his record was glory and a 
nation's gratitude." 

For more than fifteen years General Logan was a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a 
greater portion of that time was connected with 
Trinity Church, of Chicago, where he was ever 
heartily welcomed by a people who loved and ad- 
mired him and his. His several pastors often had 
the privilege of administering to him the holy sacra- 
ment, and of preaching in his hearing the word of 
God, to which he was always an attentive and sin- 
cere listener. And often has it been proved to those 
pastors that the death-folded hand was as tender in 
benevolence as it was terrific in battle. While to 
his praise it may be said that he never sacrificed 
Christian principle to political ambition, it may like- 
wise be said to his honor that he never sacrificed a 
just and laudable ambition to fear, to envious criti- 
cism or to unreasonable opinions. " 

Bishop Newman, his pastor, said at his funeral: 
"Bluff, steady, honest Logan was a Christian in 
faith and practice. Here is his Bible, which he read 
with daily care. Sincere and humble, he accepted 
Christ as his personal Saviour. When I gave him 
the sacrament of the Lord's supper, too humble in 
spirit to kneel on the cushion around the altar, he 
knelt on the carpet, and, with his precious wife by 
his side, received the tokens of a Saviour's love. His 
manly brow shone like polished marble, for he felt that 
he was in the presence of the Searcher of all hearts. 



IMMORTALITY. 87 

It was his last sacrament on earth. Standing by 
the tomb of Grant on last Memorial Day, he deliv 
ered an oration on 'Immortality.' In that glorious 
hope he died. He has joined his comrades in the 
skies. He has answered to the morning call of eter 
nallife." 



His people's heart is his funeral urn; 

And should sculptured stone be denied him, 
There will his name be found, when in turn 

We lay our heads beside him. 

— Smith. 

His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might 
Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right, 

— Cowley. 

Whoe'er amidst the sons 
Of reason, valor, liberty and virtue, 
Displays distinguished merit, is a noble 
Of Nature's own creating. 

— Thomson. 

He was not of an age, but for all time. 

— Tourneur. 

Emigravit is the inscription on the tombstone where he lies 
Dead he is not, but departed, for the hero never dies. 

— Longfellow. 



(lxxxviii.) 




Gen. PHIL. SHERIDAN, 



CHAPTER \. 



SHERIDAN.^ 

"The last words of great men embody the ruling 
passions of their lives. The miser, as death closes 
about him, clutches for his coins, the dying stage- 
driver reaches for his brake; the leader of men issues 
commands. Great-hearted Nelson, when mortally 
wounded, cried: 'What's the position of the enemy?' 
and being told, triumphantly exclaimed: 'Let me 
die while they are retreating. ' The words of Paul 
to Timothy were: 'Thou, therefore, endure hardness 
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.' Lying in impe- 
rial Rome, mentally comparing the victories of 
Caesar and Pompey with those of Joshua and Caleb, 
Samuel and David, while ringing in his ears came 
the blows of the hammer used in constructing the 
block on which he was to be beheaded, he wrote 
these words of cheer to Timothy. Our minds have 
recently been drawn toward a brave soldier, the 
grand, heroic and gallant Phil. Sheridan, who, by 
identifying himself with the armies of the North, 
shared in the victories of the boys in blue." 

His life is full of suggestions. He entered into 

*Oration delivered August 12, 1888. • 
(90) 



BRAVERY. 91 

every service with a purpose to win, such as gave to 
his orders an inspiration that often became uncon- 
querable. 

To say that he was brave, seems insipid. He 
was more. Others as fearless have failed, and are 
forgotten; he added to his bravery that of heroic 
energy, and mental conception, such as made the 
most insurmountable obstacles trifling. He acted 
from a conviction, and not on impulse. This made 
him blind to difficulties, indifferent to surroundings, 
and alive to results. 

He dashed into action with a lover's conviction of 
what must be done; and we follow him on to victory 
where others have failed. Some one has said: "He 
possessed a splendid tactical ability; he counted his 
chances; he was fertile in resource; he was quick to 
see the weakest point in an enemy's defence, and to 
turn it to his own advantage; he had a singular ge- 
nius for the quick handling of his men, and for get- 
ting the best out of them; and a no less remarkable 
ability to extricate himself from a dangerous situa- 
tion. His fertility of resource, indeed, and his ready 
adaptability to the unforseen emergency, often 
served him in good stead, and turned defeat into 
victory." 

In olden times he would have become blood-thirsty 
and tyrannical; but not so in the conflict for national 
unity. "Alexander the Great waded through the 
blood of his fellow man. By the sword he con- 
quered; and by the sword he kept the vanquished in 



92 PATRIOTISM. 

bondage. Scarcely was he cold in death, when his 
vassals shook off the yoke, and his empire was 
dashed into fragments." But Sheridan fought to 
weld a nation more closely, and to put aside the ques- 
tion from which resulted the war; hence the humanity 
exhibited made our hero a man of conviction; and 
Sheridan represents the elements of true heroism. 
With courage undaunted, combined with gentleness 
of disposition; strong as a lion in war, gentle as a 
child in peace; bold, daring, fearless, undaunted, un- 
hesitating, his courage rose with the danger; ever 
fertile in resources, ever prompt in execution; his 
rapid movements were never impelled by a blind im- 
pulse, but were prompted by a calculating mind. I 
have neither the time nor the ability to dwell upon his 
military career from the time he left West Point till 
the close of the war. 

Let me select one incident where he reveals to us 
his quickness of conception and. readiness of execu- 
tion. I refer to his famous ride in the valley of 
Virginia. As he is advancing along the road, he 
sees his routed army rushing pell-mell toward him. 
Quick as thought, by the glance of his eye, by the 
power of his sword, by the strength of his will, he 
hurls back that living stream on the enemy, and 
snatches victory from the jaws of defeat. 

Said his friend and pastor: 'On some few occa- 
sions, in Washington, I had the pleasure of meeting 
General Sheridan socially, in private circles. I was 
forcibly struck by his gentle disposition, his amiable 



AFFECTIONATE. 93 

manner, his unassuming deportment, his eye beam- 
ing with good-nature, and his voice scarcely raised 
above a whisper. I said to myself: Is this bashful 
man and retiring citizen the great general of the 
American army? Is this the hero of so many 
battles ? 

It is true that General Sheridan has been charged 
with being sometimes unnecessarily severe toward 
the enemy. My conversation strongly impressed me 
with the groundlessness of a charge which could in 
no wise be reconciled with the abhorrence which he 
expressed for the atrocities of war, with his natural 
aversion to bloodshed, and with the hope he uttered 
that he would never again be obliged to draw his 
sword against an enemy. I am persuaded that the 
sentiments of humanity ever found a congenial home, 
a secure lodgement in the breast of General Sheridan. 
Those who are best acquainted with his military 
career unite in saying that he never needlessly sacri- 
ficed human life, and that he loved and cared for his 
soldiers as a father loves and cares for his children. 

But we must not forget that if the departed hero 
was a soldier, he was, too, a citizen, and we must 
ask ourselves how he stands as a son, husband and 
father. The parent is the source of the family, the 
family the source of the nation. Social life is the 
reflex of the family life. The stream does not rise 
above its source. Those who were admitted into the 
inner circle of General Sheridan's home need not be 
told that it was a peaceful and happy one. He was 



94 PATRIOTISM. 

a fond husband and an affectionate father, lovingly 
devoted to his wife and children. I hope I am not 
trespassing on the sacred privacy of domestic life 
when I state that the General's sickness was acceler- 
ated, if not aggravated, by a fatiguing journey which 
he made in order to be home in time to assist at a 
domestic celebration, in which one of his children 
was the central figure." 

Thus he will go down into history with Lincoln and 
Grant, and always be put in contrast with McClellan 
and other inefficient leaders. 

The author of the "Life of Lincoln," given in the 
"Century," said of Sheridan: "Any one reading 
over his letters of this first period of his military 
service, is struck by the fact that through him some- 
thing was always accomplished. There was absence 
of excuse, complaint or delay; always the report of 
a task performed. If his means or supplies were 
imperfect, he found or improvised the best available 
substitute; if he could not execute the full require- 
ment, he performed as much of it as was possible." 

No one characteristic is in greater demand to-day 
than this genius to do something. Every army has 
its martinets, who are forever getting ready — going 
to do — drilling for work, but never get to doing any- 
thing until the opportunity is lost. 

There are others who are so cautious and fearful, 
that opposing armies become to them unconquerable, 
and the enemy crosses over the river and is gone, 
before the recruits arrive. When Moses commanded 



TRUE SOLDIER. 95 

Israel to go forward, the line was in motion before 
the waters moved one iota. Oh, that the spirit of 
doing something might come on us to-day. 

Sheridan was always at work; every day made a 
record he could look on with pride. A celebrated 
artist once was found weeping at eventide, and 
asked why he lamented. "Ah," said he, "1 have 
not finished one thing worthy of a place in a gallery 
to-day." Sheridan was always a soldier. Every- 
body knew he was a soldier, whether on duty, or in 
camp. 

"He's a soldier; I know he's been a soldier, by his 
walk." 

These words attracted my attention, as I sat in 
the depot, awaiting the arrival of a train. They 
were used in reference to an erect, firm- treading 
man, who had alighted from a train, and had evi- 
dently been an object of interest to his fellow 
passengers. 

"Aye, and he's a soldier; I know by the way he 
carries his pack," said another. 

"Yes, and by his politeness," observed a third. 
"Did you see how he touched his cap, only because 
you gentlemen looked at him % Most of us would 
have said, 'What are you staring at ? ' " 

The train started off; the man left the station, and 
I followed. "Did you hear the remarks of your 
fellow travelers, my friend ? " 

He smiled, as I repeated them, and said: "Just 
as it should be, sir; just as it should be. A soldier 



96 PATRIOTISM. 

in plain clothes, off duty, should be the same as 
when uniformed, and in command." 

A true soldier ought to walk so as to be known as 
such everywhere. 

He was never indifferent to the orders of his su- 
periors. Whatever may have been his conception 
of the situation, orders were to be obeyed, not ques- 
tioned. I once stood near him when the orders 
seemed most ridiculous; yet he sat on his horse, 
calmly over-looking the field, when a sharpshooter 
picked off his aide; as he fell, the General said: 
"Take him off;" and then, turning his eye back, 
held us for minutes by force of example. He simply 
said: "The commander knows why these orders are 
given, and the responsibility is with him, after they 
are executed." 

I dare say Joshua's men wondered why they 
should be ordered to equip themselves as warriors, 
and march around Jericho once a day, for six days; 
and wondered more why they should be required to 
march seven times around the city on the seventh 
day; but they obeyed. God knew; and that was 
sufficient. They blew their rams' horns, and, with 
a mighty shout, the walls cracked and tumbled. 
They did it heartily. God requires heartiness in his 
service. How grandly Paul entered that service. 
His prospective wealth, and his deep-seated preju- 
dice for the religion of his fathers were abandoned, 
and he carried his great learning, wide innueuce, 
family name, and personal authority into that ser- 



CHARITY. 97 

vice, and was ever after enthusiastic, loyal, and in- 
tensely hearty. 

The age is in need of men who are willing to do 
what is in their power. If your sight is dim, do 
something that does not require fine sight. Our 
grandmothers abandoned fine needlework, and knit. 
If your blood is thin, and you chill by exposure, 
arouse yourself; run a little, and get up a glow. If 
you can't lift two hundred pounds, lift ten. If you 
are too old to go out to battle, be sure you enter into 
your closet, and pray for those who do go out to 
fight. If you are not able to give gold, give silver 
— give copper. If you cannot weep with the weep- 
ing, rejoice with the joyful. If you can't soar like 
an eagle, skim as the swallow. 

If you can't be a Joshua, be an "armor-bearer." 
Never plead inability, or poverty, when God and 
His church put in their claims for service. I know 
a lady who never attends prayer meetings, or even- 
ing service — she is "not able;" but she accepts every 
invitation to tea, and to evening parties, that she 
receives. She never pleads absence from these 
places through indisposition. She lacks heart in the 
Lord's service. I know a family who buy every 
article of luxury and clothing they need. They go 
to any and all amusements they desire to. No com- 
plaints of poverty are made; but if God's cause needs 
money to push its enterprises, they plead poverty, 
and refuse to give. They lack heart. 

Sheridan's life was an incentive to general loyalty, 



98 PATRIOTISM. 

such as will find ready acknowledgment, not only 
in the North, but also in the South. I know the 
Southern people; I know their chivalry, I know their 
magnanimity, their warm and affectionate nature; 
and I am sure that the sons of the South, and especi- 
ally those who fought in the late war, will join in 
the national lamentation, and will lay a garland of 
mourning on the bier of the great general. They 
recognize the fact that the Nation's General is dead, 
and that his death is the Nation's loss. And this 
universal sympathy, coming from all sections of the 
country, irrespective of party lines, is easily ac- 
counted for, when we consider that under an over- 
ruling Providence, the war in which General Sheri- 
dan took such a conspicuous part has resulted in in- 
creased blessings to every State in our common 
country. 

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them how we will." 

And this is true of nations, as well as individuals. 
Our people are coming to see this, and encourage 
everything that is creative of true loyalty. In a 
word, there is in men a spirit that glories in true 
loyalty. I remember a scene after the battle of 
Sycamore Church, where our batallion was surren- 
dered, and a number made a dash and escaped. A 
young soldier, just from the hospital, weak and 
wounded, there came to me, saying: "Where's my 
brother, Steve ? " I told him I had seen him 
stripped of coat and shoes and marched off toward 



A DISCHARGE. 99 

Libby, as a prisoner. He said: "I'll take his 
place;" and he did, and fought bravely on. On 
another occasion, while McClellan was keeping us 
in the mud, on the Potomac, a drummer boy was 
shot. The bone in his leg was shattered. A battle 
was on. He said: "Carry me on your shoulder, 
and let me drum it out." Of such stuff are heroes 
made. Sheridan was loyal to what he believed 
right. Oh, for more such heroes. Do right. I'd 
rather go to heaven through the poor-house, than to 
hell through a mansion. Soldiers must be aggressive. 
Let Christians get this spirit, and we can take Chi- 
cago for Christ. We can crowd the churches and 
the chariots until God will have to enlarge his 
heaven, to accommodate the hosts who will come up. 
I have a small parchment at my home. It could be 
folded up in the thimble my mother wore on her 
finger. All the money in Chicago would not buy it 
— that honorable discharge from the army. I look 
ahead to another discharge. Not one of parchment, 
but a white stone, surrounded by the sanctified, who 
trail their white robes on the golden paving of the 
New Jerusalem. Comrades, don't be satisfied with 
your discharge, and your Gr. A. R. badge, honorable 
as they are; but live such a life, that when the stars 
fall, and the rivers cease to sing, you will hear the 
welcome call: "Come up higher." 

There are battles to be fought in the on-coming 
days, and the promise is to him that overcometh. 

There is a day of settlement. When? After 

LofC. 



100 PATRIOTISM. 

death. "It is appointed unto man once to die, and 
afterward the judgment." True loyalty never 
dies. 

Dr. Duff', better known as the friend of India, 
while pleading his cause in 1867, in Edinburgh, 
fainted and fell. His brethren took him up, and 
carried him into an adjacent room; and when he 
revived, he said: "Take me back. I was pleading 
for India. They shall know that I would die for 
their interests. Let me finish my plea. " 

So the soldier sings: 

"Ne'er think the victory won, 
Nor lay thine armor down; 
The work of faith will not be done, 
Till thou obtain a crown. 

•'Fight on, my soul, till death 
Shall bring thee to thy God; 
He'll take thee, at thy parting breath, 
Up to his blest abode." 

The flag, to a true patriot, is most sacred, and its 
defence is the patriot's delight. 

How could Barbara Fritchie have immortalized 
her name as she did by her daring defence of the 
flag, in Fredericktown, while Stonewall Jackson's 
army was passing through the place ? Said she: 
"Fire at this old, gray head, but spare the flag." 
To her, it was more precious than life. So with the 
Prussian officer, who, when found by his enemy, 
who w^ould gladly have removed him to more com- 
fortable quarters, begged to be permitted to die as 



SELF-ABNEGATION 101 

he was; for he bad secured the regimental flag, and, 
folding it under his dying form, was holding it from 
the enemy. 

Such should be the feeling of every Christian, in 
reference to the name of Jesus, and the cross. 

Every oath is like a daggei, sent to the hilt into 
the Christian's heart. We are set for the defence 
of the truth, as much as ever James was. 

I do not wonder at Mr. Savage's attack upon the 
Scriptures a short time ago; it is in keeping with 
his avowed profession. He is set forth for the de- 
fence of certain interests. 

We are Christian soldiers of the Lord Jesus; for 
others let us be as earnest. 

When Jesus' body was in the tomb, the Jews be- 
came alarmed, and went to Pilate, asking for in- 
creased guards. Pilate said unto them: "The sol- 
diers are at your service. Go, make the tomb as 
secure as you can." They doubled the guard. 
Arn't you glad in your soul to-day that they did 
their worst \ 

So we say to every foe that threatens our home: 
"Do your worst, my dear sir. We have no fear; 
and the sooner you exhaust all the schemes of hell, 
aud all the devices of men, the better for the race. 
Our God is leading on through tears, furnaces and 
tombs, to certain victory. Our weapons are not 
carnal. 

Our heroic leader was so devoted to the welfare of 
his country as to neglect his own pecuniary interests. 



102 PATRIOTISM. 

He did not suffer anything to hinder his useful- 
ness. He put out his flag, with a purpose to defend 
it at any cost. 

So, if we believe in the name of Jesus, we have 
no compromise with sinners concerning it. When 
asked, as were the students at New Haven, a few 
weeks ago: "Do you believe in the divinity of 
Christ ?" we are ready to say, "Yes;" and not, "I am 
not quite persuaded to say that I do." I should as 
soon think of Sheridan saying: "I am not quite per- 
suaded whether the flag is better than the Southern -1 
rag or not," as to have a converted man say he is 
not quite persuaded as to the deity of his Saviour. 
To me it is an incomprehensible mystery. I can 
understand how some of the boys at Cedar Creek 
did not turn around when Sheridan met them on the 
19th of October, 1864; because he was human, and 
very likely to fail in the conflict. But I cannot un- 
derstand how a spirit claiming to have met Jesus in 
the work of regeneration, can doubt his divine 
claim. When Gilbert Becket was a prisoner of war, 
he defended his principles so manfully that the 
Prince admired him, and released him; and the 
Prince's daughter, having learned two words in 
English, started in pursuit of the man who defended 
his principles. First she cried, "London," by which 
she secured a passage to that city; then she left that 
to cry, "Gilbert;" and from street to street she 
cried, "Gilbert," until she found him, whom she 
never left until death. Let the church believe fully 



FABLES. 103 

in a hell to shun, and a heaven to gain, and in 
Jesus Christ as our only Saviour, and this world 
can be taken. Such men are sure to use the right 
weapons, and they won't be a life-time finding out 
the truth. 

Fables sometimes contain great truths. There is 
a fable associated with the visit of Empress Helena 
to the Holy Land, in search of the cross. Three 
crosses were presented; and she called for a corpse, 
and laid first one, then another, upon the dead form; 
as the real cross touched the dead man, he moved, 
and life returned. All we ask is, will this make 
dead men live ? If so, it must be divine. 

In the cathedral at Brussels is a wonderful pulpit, 
called the "Chair of Truth." It is very skillfully 
wrought, so as to represent a pulpit in the midst of 
the tree of life, in which the preacher is represented 
as speaking in God's stead. 

Beneath the pulpit are a man and woman hanging 
their heads in shame, and hastening from the garden 
of pleasure. Around the tree is wound the serpent, 
with head lifted above the pulpit, and mouth open 
to deny every word uttered; but above the serpent 
is the Christ-Child, with foot on the serpent's head, 
ready to bruise it, while His mother stands with 
Him. 

How impressive the picture ! Every pulpit is 
founded in view of the fact that sin is, and abounds; 
and the only power that can crush it out is the march 
of Jesus, the Christ. 



104 PATRIOTISM. 

Every Christian soldier needs just this, in order 
that he or she may endure hardness, as a good 
soldier. 

The biscuit will be hard-tack, often; dainties only 
salt junk, and downy pillows, the rugged rocks. We 
must fight, bleed, die, if need be. We should have 
some conscience about spending $20 for luxuries, 
and then staying away from church, because it costs 
$6 a year to attend it. Some spend $2 a year for 
the New York Ledger, and ten cents for Sabbath 
school 

Sacrifice — endure hardness, as soldiers. Sacrifice 
for the cause. That don't mean, how little can I 
get along with, and not appear mean, how much 
can I sacrifice, and not wrong my family and credi- 
tors ? That is not what it means. It don't mean, 
"My head aches; stay at home; rest a little — worked 
a little hard this week; need rest to-day; the air of a 
crowded room is bad; I won't go — couldn't enjoy it 
if I went." 

That is from a worldly standpoint. I must 
pay my pew rent, if my hat is poor; for that is 
God's money. 1 must pay my missionary money; 
for God said: "Go into all the world." And shall 
they go, if I don't help ? I must be at church, must 
fight that battle for Jesus to-day. 

Too many of us want to go to heaven on flowery 
beds of ease, and let others fight to win the prize, 
and sail through bloody seas. 

How we do sing that hymn, and then sit and 



GOD HONORS. 105 

tremble a whole evening, because the cross is heavy, 
and we don't feel eloquent and great. 

When Mr. Moody canvassed London, an old lady, 
eighty-five years old, came and asked for a district, 
and entered upon her mission with a light heart. 
That's what we want — men and women not too 
young, not too old, nor too great, to speak and work 
for Jesus. 

The reward of faithfulness is an hundred-fold. 
Think of Garfield, and his march from the canal- 
boat to the White House; and Grant, from the stone- 
yard to the foremost rank of generals; and every 
boy in blue has been treated with a parchment you 
cannot purchase with your gold. 

The army of our God offers promotion and honors 
as far above any earthly rewards, as a boundless 
eternity overshadows a short-lived existence. 

I have seen men in the army of the Lord rise in 
ten minutes, from the companionship of devils and 
drunkards, into communion with the Deity, and 
brotherhood with His Christ, and be given a testi- 
monial of immeasurable worth. Comrades in camp, 
arise, put on thy strength, and go forth into real con- 
quests for God. 

And suffer not your cause to fall into unsanctified 
hands. 

During a severe gale, some }^ears ago, at Portland, 
the cross was blown from the Catholic cathedral; 
and hundreds — yes, thousands — rushed to guard it, 
that no unsanctified hands might touch it. Com 



106 



PATEIOT1SM. 



rades, brethren, let not unchristian hands disgrace 
the land you have helped make sacred. 

"Thy saints, in all this glorious war, 
Shall conquer, though they die; 
They see the triumph from afar — 
By faith they bring it nigh. 

"When that illustrious day shall rise, 
And all thine armies shine, 
In robes of victory through the skies, 
The glory shall be thine." 




GEORGE CROOK 






"Oh, without the tears that bedim; 
What! standing and weeping for him — 
The soldier— why, this is not he, 
In the long, narrow box, that you see; 
Only assigned to a higher post- 
He takes full rank with the upper host/' 

—Barker. 
"Even when we thought him most our own, 
His crown was nearest to his brow; 
And he redeemed his earlier vow, 
And passed, with all his armor on." 

—Redden. 
"His gain exceedeth all our loss; 
We linger on these barren sands — 
He is a dweller in the lands 
Bequeathed the soldier of the cross." 

—Redden. 
"One moment stood he, as the angels stand, 

High in the stainless eminence of air; 
The next, he was not — to his fatherland 
Translated, unaware.' * 

—Myers. 



(108) 



CHAPTER VI. 



GENERAL GEORGE CROOK. 

"Set thine house in order, for thou shalt surely die, and 
not live." 

On Friday morning, March 21, 1890, we were 
forcibly reminded of the uncertain tenure with which 
we hold this life, by the sudden death of General 
Crook, who, seemingly in usual health, full of life, 
purpose and plan, passed from this life to more ac- 
tive fields of usefulness beyond the hills of time. 

His life had been one of intense activity. At an 
early age, while living in comparative poverty, a 
congressman asked him if he would like to enter the 
military school and fit himself for the life of a soldier. 
After careful consideration and counsel, he returned 
to thank the donor and accept the situation. 

His school life was commendable for care and 
thoroughness, such as gave him the respect of his 
teachers and the confidence of the people. 

Leaving the United States Military Academy in 
1852, he entered upon his life work, and was for a 
time associated with the Fourth United States In- 
fantry, stationed in California. His activity in 
Range River and Pitt River expeditions gave him at 
(109) 



110 PATKIOTISM. 

the beginning of the civil war an appointment as 
colonel of the Thirty-sixth Ohio Infantry Volunteers. 
He soon won the command of a brigade in West Vir- 
ginia and Maryland, where, for bravery at Antie- 
tam, he was breveted Lieutenant-Colonel in the 
United States army. He remained with the volun- 
teer army until 1866, and won many expressions of 
favor. Then he was mustered out of the volunteer 
service, commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel in the 
regular army, and assigned command of the Twenty- 
third United States Infantry, and stationed within 
bound of Boise District, Idaho. 

His tact in handling Indians soon made him fa- 
mous. In Arizona, during the uprising of the In- 
dians General Crook achieved many signal victories, 
and upon the retirement of General Terry, was 
promoted to the rank of major-general, and put in 
command of the Department of Missouri, which 
command he held at the time of his death. 

His death came to us as sudden, perhaps, because 
of his intense desire to live, and his absence from 
the field of action; but death comes to home as well 
as battle field. Many a comrade has passed through 
the trials of poverty, war of shot and shell, to die 
in his quiet chamber, even in the bosom of friends. 
Be that as it may: 

"One will be with me— those whose voice 
I long have loved and known— 
To die is not my wish, my choice; 
But I shall not die alone." 



DESIRE FOR LIFE. Ill 

General Crook, at the hour of his departure, was 
planning for campaigns and expeditions that 
stretched far out into the future. He studiously 
avoided all extra drafts upon his nervous system, 
in view of long life. Keturning from a play in 
which was portrayed sin and its influence upon the 
mind of the guilty, the night before his death, he 
was so moved as to shed tears, and remarked to a 
friend: " I wish I had not seen that act; it wearies 
me; I cannot throw it off." He lived long only by 
having lived well. 

I cannot think for a moment that he feared death, 

for he was a believer in that philosophy which 

teaches: 

"Death cannot come 
To him untimely who is fit to die." 

Nay, with his strong desire for long life I have 
fullest sympathy. Indeed, I believe it the solemn 
duty of every man "who lives to be useful" to de- 
sire and plan for long life. His love of life was not, 
therefore, a weakness or evidence of self-will, but a 
desire to accomplish something for the land he 
loved, as a true patriot. In this Luther and Whit- 
field erred, in desiring to die. Every man ought to 
make life worth living — and if he does, the longer 
that life the better. General Crook saw the needs 
of his native land, and could not bear to leave his 
life-work unfinished. This was right and com- 
mendable. 

When wisdom stretches forth her hands to offer 



112 PATRIOTISM. 

rewards for good living, she says: "Length of days 
is in thy right hand," as her most excellent gift, 
The Bible has no pessimistic philosophy — it never 
discusses the question, whether life is worth living 
or not; but always holds out objects of interest, and 
fields of usefulness for the longest and most intense 
activity. 

The biographers of Lyman Beecher have said of 
him: "He was so hungry to do the work of Him 
that sent him, that he seemed sometimes to have 
little appetite for heaven. And after he was seventy 
years old, one of his children congratulated him that 
his labors were nearly over, and that he soon would 
be at rest. To his son's surprise, the old man 
quickly replied: 'I don't thank my children for 
sending me to heaven before God does.' In the lec- 
ture room of Plymouth church, just before the end 
of life, he said: 'If God should tell me that I might 
choose whether to die and go to heaven, or begin my 
life over again, I would enlist again in a minute.'" 

General Crook was ambitious to be a soldier. 
This was the high aim of his life, and yet there was 
not in his nature aught of cruelty or love of conflict. 
Like General Grant, his whole nature was gener- 
ous and magnanimous. His treatment of the con- 
quered Chiricahuas won him an enviable reputa- 
tion. All that is cruel in war was softened by the 
influence of his life; for he made nobler the lives of 
those under him who carried the sword and the 
musket. 



VISITORS. 113 

As early as four o'clock in the morning men 
began their inarch around the casket of him as he 
lay in state in our city; and it is estimated that 
seven thousand men looked upon the face of the 
General on Sunday, March 23d. The old man who 
stood by the casket for several minutes, with stream- 
ing eyes, said: "He was my friend. For thirty 
years 1 have loved him and followed his career, and 
have come all the way from Jackson County, Mich- 
igan, to look on his countenance once more." 

He was by nature a soldier. During the rebel- 
lion his field of action was very wide, and his per- 
sonal relation to the conflicts won for him distinc- 
tion and respect. His equals in rank esteemed him; 
his superiors respected him, for with Hannibal — he 
learned to obey. He never questioned the orders 
of those who had a right to tell him where to go. 
He discharged the duties that were assigned to him 
with a valor and tact such as were peculiar to him- 
self. Courteous and gracious, modest and unosten- 
tatious, he moved forward with military propriety 
and soldierly dignity. 

He did not yield a point easily. He knew his 
men, that they were well drilled; and being a strict 
disciplinarian, he dared trust them in the crucial 
moment. In a word, his whole career of thirty 
years' warfare in the service of the United States, 
is a brilliant and commendable unfolding of his love 
for military life, and unquestioned patriotism. One 
author in speaking of his achievements said: "His 



114 PATRIOTISM. 

pursuit into Mexico and capture of Geronimo and 
his Apaches is as remarkable as anything in the 
war history of America. And here in the North- 
west where he was best known will General 
Crook's death be most lamented, and the recollec- 
tion of his brilliant services will be the longest pre- 
served. " 

It certainly is a laudable ambition to desire to be 
a soldier, a defender of the Kepublic. To share in 
the conflict of the nation against her enemies, and 
in defense of her institutions is worthy of the devo- 
tion of the best men civilization can possibly pro- 
duce. What would a nation be without this ele- 
ment? Palsied be the tongue that speaks against 
the heroes of war, or that is lifted to oppose the 
institutions for which they fought. Those who 
sneer at legitimate references to the conflict be- 
tween the North and the South or say aught 
against the boys in blue or gray, are unworthy a 
hearing. They have no conception of what that 
conflict meant. 

I heard a young man of this generation saying 
that he was tired of hearing, on memorial days, of 
the immense sacrifice of lives and treasure made by 
the people in the late Civil War. To all such I 
offer the following facts as given by the Cincinnati 
Commercial: "It is well enough to freshen up the 
minds of the boys now and then as to the facts of 
that war, and what it cost their fathers. It takes 
but few figures to show that it was one of the 



ENLISTMENTS. 115 

greatest and most momentous wars ever waged 
among civilized people, and, taking into considera- 
tion its length, the most destructive, costly, and 
murderous war ever waged. Look over these 
dreadful figures, young man, and consider the 
awful significence of the following facts: 

"Official returns show that about 2,653,000 sol- 
diers enlisted during the war in response to the suc- 
cessive calls of President Lincoln, and that of this 
number 186,097 were colored troops. Keports 
show that the northern and southern armies met in 
over 2,000 skirmishes and battles. In 148 of these 
conflicts the loss on the federal side was over 500 
men, and in at least ten battles over 10,000 men 
were reported lost on each side. The appended 
table shows that the combined losses of the federal 
and confederate forces in killed, wounded, and miss- 
ing in the following engagements were: Shiloh, 
24,000; Antietam, 18,000; Stone River, 22,000; 
Chickamauga, 33,000; McClellan's Peninsula cam- 
paign, 50,000; Grant's Peninsula campaign, 140,- 
000; and Sherman's campaign, 80,000. Official sta- 
tistics show that of the 2,653,000 men enlisted there 
were killed in battle 44,238 ; died of wounds, 
49,205; died of disease, 186,216; died of unknown 
causes, 24,184; total, 303,843. This includes only 
those whose death while in the army had been act- 
ually proved. To this number should be added, 
first, 26,000 men who are known to have died 
while in the hands of the enemy as prisoners of war, 



116 PATRIOTISM. 

and many others in the same manner whose deaths 
are unrecorded; second, a fair percentage of the 
205,794 men who are put down on the official re- 
ports as deserters and missing in action, for those 
who participated in the war know that men fre- 
quently disappeared who, it was certain, had not 
deserted, yet could not be otherwise officially ac- 
counted for; third, thousands who are buried in 
private cemeteries all over the North who died 
while at home on furlough. 

The nation's dead are buried in sevent} 7 -three na- 
tional cemeteries, of which only twelve are in the 
northern states. Among the principal ones in the 
North are Cypress Hill, with its 3,786 dead; Finn's 
Point, N. J., which contains the remains of 2,644 
unknown dead; Gettysburg, Pa., with its 1,967 
known and 1,608 unknown dead; Mound City, 111., 
with 2,505 known and 2,721 unknown graves; Phil- 
adelphia, with 1,909 dead; and AVoodlawn, Elmira, 
N. Y., with its 3,900 dead. In the South, near the 
scenes of terrible conflicts, are located the largest 
depositories of the nation's heroic dead. 

Arlington, Va., 16,264, of which 4,319 are unknown. 
Beaufort, S. C, 9,241, of which 4,493 are unknown. Chal- 
mette, La., 12,511, of which 5,674 are unknown. Chattanooga, 
Tenn., 12,962, of which 4,963 are unknown. Fredericksburg, 
Va., 15,257, of which 12,770 are unknown. Jefferson Bar- 
racks, Mo., 11,490, of which 2,900 are unknown. Little Rock, 
Ark. s 5,602, of which 2,317 are unknown. City Point, Va., 
5,122, of which 1,374 are unknown. Marietta, Ga., 10,151, of 
which 2,963 are unknown. Memphis, Tenn., 13,997, of which 
8,817 are unknown. Nashville, Tenn., 16,526, of which 4,700 



GRAVES. 117 

are unknown. Poplar Grove, Va., 6,190, of which 4,001 are 
unknown. Richmond, Va., 6,542, of which 5,700 are un- 
known. Salisbury,N. C, 12, 126, of which 12,032 are unknown. 
Stone River, Tenn., 5,602, of which 288 are unknown. Vicks- 
burg, Miss., 16,600, of which 12,704 are unknown. Antietam, 
Va., 4,671, of which 1,818 are unknown. Winchester, Va., 
4,559, of which 2,365 are unknown. 

In all the remains of 300,000 men who fought for 
the stars and stripes find guarded graves in our na- 
tional cemeteries. Two cemeteries arc mainly de- 
voted to the brave men who perished in the loath- 
some prisons of the same name — Andersonville, Ga. , 
which contains 13,714 graves, and Salisbury, with 
its 12,126 dead, of whom 12,032 are unknown. Of 
the vast number who are interred in our national 
cemeteries, 275,000 sleep beneath the soil of the 
southern States, and 145,000 of these rest in graves 
marked unknown. 

The total confederate loss will never be known, 
but the best estimates place it at about 220,000 men 
out of 1,000,000 men who served in the rebel armies. 
They fought during the war on the defensive, among 
friends, and generally under cover of breastworks 
of one kind or another, from rifle-pits to regular 
fortifications, which gave them an enormous advan- 
tage. The northern men were obliged to fight ex- 
posed, being the assailants, while the rebels fired from 
behind shelter. 

The total number of men furnished to the federal 
army by the United States during the war, under 
all calls, was 2,783,523. The total number of col. 



118 



PATRIOTISM. 



ored troops in the northern army was 123,156. The 
heaviest loss by disease was suffered by the colored 
troops; while 2,997 died in action and of wounds, the 
enormously large number of 26,301 died of disease. 
Among the white troops the proportion of deaths in 
action and from wounds to the deaths from disease 
was about as one to two; among the colored troops, 
as one to eight. Of the colored troops enlisted, one 
out of every seven died of disease. The proportion 
among the white troops was one to fifteen. Now 
that we are brushing up these figures, it will be well 
enough to remember how many men were furnished 
by each State, and the following list will show: 

Maine 71,745 

New Hampshire 74,605 

Vermont 35,256 

Massachusetts 151,785 

Rhode Island 24,741 

Connecticut .. 52,270 

New York 455,568 

New Jersey 79,511 

Pennsylvania 366,326 

Delaware 13,651 

Maryland 46,730 

West Virginia 30,003 

Dist. of Columbia 16,872 

Again, the young men must not forget as they 
read of the great battles of history, that few of them 
can compare in magnitude with the great battles of 
the civil war, and that the battles of the war were 
the bloodiest in all the history of wars in the pro- 
portion of killed to those engaged. Waterloo was 



Ohio 317,133 

Indiana 195,147 

Illinois 258,217 

Michigan 90,119 

Wisconsin 96,118 

Minnesota 25,024 

Iowa 75,860 

Missouri 108,778 

Kentucky 78,540 

Kansas 20,097 

Total 2,653,062 



WEST POINTERS. 119 

one of the most desperate and bloody fields chroni- 
cled in European history, and yet Wellington's cas- 
ualties were less than twelve per cent, his losses be- 
ing 2,432 killed, and 9,580 wounded, out of over 
75,000 men, while at Shiloh one side lost in killed 
and wounded 9,710 out of 34,000, while their op- 
ponents report their killed and wounded at 9,616, 
making the casualties about thirty per cent. 

Of the gentlemen who were at West Point during 
one period of a cadetship, fifty-six were killed in 
battle, and, estimating the rate of killed and 
wounded at one to five, 280 were wounded. From 
the discovery of America to 1861, in all the wars 
with other nations, the record gives the deaths in 
battle of but ten American generals, while from 1861 
to 1865, both sides being opposed by Americans, 
more than 100 general officers fell while leading their 
triumphant columns. From 1492 to 1861 the killed 
and wounded upon American soil in all battles, 
combats and skirmishes, added together, as shown 
by reports, hardly exceeded the casualties of single 
battle of the great American conflict. 

General Crook was faithful in all things entrusted 
to him, never using for self -advancement any privil- 
ege or opportunity, but always looking for the na- 
tion's interests. With instincts gentle and humane, 
he urged justice for the poor savage who surren- 
dered to him; and was grieved over the controversy 
and proposed removal of the Chiricahua from Flor- 
ida to Port Sill, and he will always be remembered, 



120 PATRIOTISM. 

because of his attitude toward the unfortunate In- 
dian, who liked his blunt, honest ways and his manly 
courage. He believed that the military policy of 
the government was simply one of destruction* and 
the maintaining of troops in the southwest at the ex- 
pense of three million dollars a year was calculated 
to keep up a reign of terror; and he at once took 
steps to teach the hostile Apaches the necessity of 
obedience, and they soon learned that General Crook 
kept his promises, and considered his word as sa- 
cred, whether given to the red man or the white 
man. He banished white marauders and squatters, 
who were robbing the Indians, and brought peace 
to the citizens of Arizona. Believing that our In- 
dian troubles were largely due to broken pledges, 
dishonest agents, government failures and the ra- 
pacity of white settlers, he asked for and secured con- 
trol of the Apaches for two years, during which 
time there was peace, and I believe but for the new 
complications of the Interior Department peace might 
have continued. 

General Crook's Indian policy is well put by the 
editor of the Christian Union in these words: 

'•General Crook's Indian policy was a simple one. 
His first step was to teach the Indians that they 
must obey the law. Then they learned that their 
conqueror invariably fulfilled his promises — often a 
peculiarly difficult task on account of interference 
from Washington, and the intriguing and knavery 
which are usually connected with an Indian reser- 



121 



vation. But General Crook did not stop here. His 
policy was emphatically constructive. It never oc- 
curred to him that the Indian question was settled 
by driving the Indians upon a reservation and keep- 
ing them there in idleness with the aid of troops. 
After conquering the Chiricahuas in 1883, he placed 
them upon arable land, secured all the farming im- 
plements possible, instructed the Indians in their 
use, and stimulated them by providing a market for 
their produce. The result was that even the Chiri- 
cahua warriors presently became interested in farm- 
ing, since their work was actually productive and 
profitable. At the second outbreak in 1885, less 
than one-quarter of the Chiricahuas could be per- 
suaded by their brethren to leave the reservation. 
General Crook proved that even the worst Indians 
prefer peace when they have learned that disobedi- 
ence is swiftly punished, and that good conduct 
means the enjoyment of their rights and opportuni- 
ties to earn money for themselves. Only material 
arguments like these could be used at first with the 
wilder Indians. 

But they were quick to appreciate the advantages 
of manual training and of schools, which in Gen- 
eral Crook's plan, followed immediately. His plan 
contemplated the allotment of land in severalty, as 
a matter of course, as a prime requisite, and in his 
reports he pointed to citizenship as the goal to be 
kept always in view. Up to the time of his death 
he continued, in public addresses and his official 



122 PATKIOTISM. 

writings, to demand justice for the Indians, to ex- 
pose the abuses of the reservation system and of bu- 
reaucracy, and to ask that the Government should 
grant the Indians independent rights, and give 
them practical encouragement to become self-respect- 
ing, self-supporting beings." 

But this work is left for another. May he em- 
body that quality that gained the confidence of the 
most unruly tribes in our far West. Then shall we 
have occasion for hope, and 

'Though he has gone to that last bourn 
From which no traveler returns, 
His noble deeds and name will live 
While Freedom's lighted altar burns." 




Gen. R. A. ALGER. 

EX-COM. IN CHIEF G. A. R. 



Peace hath her victories, 

No less renowned than war. 

— Milton. 

But whether on the scaffold high, 

Or in the battle's van, 
The fittest place where man can die, 

Is where he die3 for man. 

— Barry. 

Their armor rings on a fairer field 
Than the Greek or the Trojan ever trod; 

For Freedom's sword is the blade they wield, 
And the light above is the smile of God. 

—Proctor. 

Along its front no sabers shine, 
No blood-red pennons wave: 
Its banner bears the single line, 
"Our duty is to save." 

Holmes. 



(cxxiv.) 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE SOLDIER'S ATTITUDE. 

Joshua stands in Bible history as a representative 
warrior. It is true, Moses was a warrior too, but 
not distinctively so. Likewise Abraham, Ehud, 
David and Gideon. Still, they do not represent the 
professional warrior type. They were absorbed 
with other affairs, and their appearances in battle 
were phenomenal and unusual. Not that they did 
not render valuable and efficient service as soldiers. 
The accounts of the overthrow of the five kings, the 
forays of Ehud the left-handed, the routing of the 
robber Midianites by Gideon, and the discomfiture 
and almost annihilation of Israel's enemies by the 
shepherd-poet-king, are read and re-read, with ever- 
increasing interest, even after the lapse of centuries 
and millenniums. 

But Joshua was pre-eminently a soldier. How- 
ever useful he was in civic and ecclesiastic affairs, 
however dear he was to Moses and younger Israel, 
however lofty his virtues, still his chief honor and 
glory belongs to the military. We might, indeed, 
say he was the ideal soldier. He was true to his 
people, to his country, and to his God. Or rather, 
he was true to God, and was hence necessarily true 
(125) 



126 PATRIOTISM. 

to his people and to his country. For a man's atti- 
tude to his God very largely decides his attitude in 
every other direction. Joshua was devoted to God, 
and hence was devoted to his country. 

On one occasion Joshua was suddenly confronted 
by the Lord Omnipotent. Instantly* the doughty 
soldier, with true soldierly instinct and decorum, 
exclaimed: "What saith my Lord unto His servant?" 
Napoleon and Alexander and Caesar never gave ut- 
terance to a nobler sentence. The warrior is ex- 
pected to speak bluntly and to the point, and hence 
Joshua reaches the very apex of the highest possi- 
bility. Meeting the Officer of the Day, the ranking 
Officer of all the days, suddenly and unexpectedly, 
his wits do not forsake him. The soldierly instinct 
is uppermost, and, with proper salutation, he re- 
ports for orders: "What saith my Lord unto His 
servant ? " 

This is the true position toward God of every true 
soldierly soul. Joshua, though wise, was not infallible, 
and, though mighty, was not omnipotent. He rec- 
ognizes his need of wisdom and strength, and seeks 
them at the proper place, and the only inexhaustible 
one. Blessed is that army — soldiers and officers — 
where the confidence is mutual, and the relations 
congenial, as between Joshua and God. 

There seemed to be, however, in the mind of 
Joshua, a half-formed doubt as to whether the Being 
before him was really the God of heaven. But one 
thought was dominant: "Is this Abraham's and 



CHKIST APPEAKS. 127 

Jacob's and Moses' Commander ? Is this the One 
who plunged Egypt into mourning on the night of 
the Exodus? Is this our Pillar and our Cloud? 
Does he come in Israel's interest ? If so, I am ready 
for orders. Command me, I will gladly obey." 

Why did Joshua doubt? Perhaps he was like 
Thomas — unable to believe without a preponderance 
of testimony ; by instinct and constitution incredu- 
lous. Joshua had never seen God in regimentals; 
he had never seen him accoutred for war; had never 
come in contact with Him in the role of a warrior. 
He knew of God as Creator, Preserver and Provider; 
but as a Captain-General, God was then truly the 
Unknown God. 

Indeed, he had never seen God at all. Theop- 
hanies had been measurably common to Abraham 
and Moses, and to others, possibly; but this was 
God's first appearance to Joshua. Moses was not 
satisfied without an actual sight of God, and heaven 
heard him crying: "I beseech Thee, show me Thy 
glory." The same passion seized the soul of the 
disciple, Philip, and he exclaims: "Shew us the 
Father." Give us a glimpse of the ineffable 
Countenance. Tender was the reply of Jesus: "He 
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father also." 
Have you not surmised that I am God ? Have I 
not measured up to your conceptions of the God- 
head ? Have I not been divinely paternal ? "How 
sayest thou then, 'Shew us the Father ?' I and the 
Father are one." 



128 PATRIOTISM. 

Ah, God is not angry with the soldier who de- 
sires to see his heavenly Commander's face. All 
heaven is in sympathy with such aspirations. 
Heaven may not grant the petition now; but the 
petition itself is sweet with the incense that heaven 
loves most. To the cry of every soldier's l^eart for 
a vision of the Grand Commander's face, innumer- 
able voices answer: "Be patient a little while. Be 
tender and true. Be Christ-like and pure. Be obe- 
dient and unquestioning. The beatific vision awaits 
you. 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
see God. ' " Nor will we ever be satisfied until we 
see God, face to face, soul to soul. Nor can we ever 
have the fullness, humanly speaking, of divine 
knowledge, till we have seen God with our own 
eyes. 

Hence it was fitting in this solemn crisis in the life 
of Joshua for the heavenly Commander to appear in 
regimentals — in the accoutrements of war, and give 
orders for the farther conduct of the campaign. And 
never was a subordinate more anxious for orders 
from headquarters. He could no longer turn to 
Moses, fresh from the senate chamber of heavenly 
inquiry, for wisdom. There was no human arm 
upon which he could lean. His hope and help were 
of heaven. 

THE OCCASION OF JOSHUA'S ANXIETY. 

Joshua had a tremendous enterprise on his hands. 
Jericho, a walled city, with impregnable situation — 



EMANCIPATED. 129 

the Gibraltar of all the surrounding cities and coun- 
try — lay in his pathway. Like Vicksburg, the Gib- 
raltar of the Mississippi, it was a gateway. It was 
Joshua's only door of entrance. This valiant, 
mighty, haughty city must be taken. Nor would 
she supinely surrender. Joshua knew that one false 
step, one injudicious movement here, would jeopar- 
dise the destiny of millions, if they did not even 
frustrate the very plans and purposes of Deity. 
Nor was retreat possible. Fight he must. The 
Jordan, overflowing and tumultuous, was behind 
him, Jericho was before him, and the very ground 
upon which he stood would be hotly contested. He 
was, indeed, a theocratic king, but he could reign 
only by grace of arms. 

Moreover, his soldiers were in a pitiable condi- 
tion. They were untrained and undisciplined. 
They were not inured to the toils and rigors of 
a military life. The heroes of Egypt and the Red 
Sea were buried in the wilderness. The younger 
generation was composed of raw recruits. They 
were like the farmer-soldiers of Naseby and Marston 
Moor, of Concord and Lexington. It is not bravery 
so much that prevents the panic on the field, but 
discipline. Joshua's untrained and undisciplined 
host might well have weakened his heart, and filled 
him with fears of defeat and disaster. 

Nor was a lack of discipline all — they were with- 
out supplies. The manna no longer fell; covies of 
quail no more waylaid them. Miraculous supplies 



130 PATRIOTISM. 

mark emergencies, only. God's opportunity perches 
on the apex of man's extremity, and nowhere else. 
God deals with us on business principles. 

Here were some 3,000,000 refugees, without food 
or raiment, in a strange land, embroiled in a fierce 
war, in which one side or the other must suffer ex- 
termination. When Lincoln manumitted 4,000,000 
slaves, their future maintenance became a grave 
problem. Yet there was a vast empire open before 
them, inviting their loftiest endeavors. Still, many 
of the freedmen no doubt suffered — possibly some of 
them suffer even yet. 

Appalling must Joshua have felt his responsibili- 
ties to be. By God's appointment, he was in su- 
preme command — to God was responsible for man- 
agement or mismanagement, for victory or defeat. 
Men, under such circumstances, move slowly. 
When there is no one to share the responsibility, 
there is little danger of rash and reckless move- 
ments. During the last quadrennium the dominant 
party in American politics often dared fate to do its 
worst. Why ? Because they felt they could shoul- 
der their shame on the Senate. In other words, re- 
sponsibility was divided. Better have both Houses 
of the same political complexion. Then responsi- 
bility can be located, and there can be no scape-goat 
to bear away the iniquity of the evil-doers. 

Responsibility weighed heavily upon this hero-sol- 
dier, and so he cried. "What saith my Lord unto 
his servant ? " I am ready to obey orders, if Thou 



BIBLE. 131 

wilt but condescend to command me. Speak, Lord, 
for Thy servant heareth. God heard the petition, 
and granted the prayer. Jericho fell, and God 
was glorified in the deliverance of His people. 

IMPORTANT LESSONS. 

Here many important lessons and influences crowd 
in upon us. One is: It is ours to know the will of 
God. More, it is ours to know even God Himself. 
This knowledge is of supreme importance. If a 
knowledge of men is important, as all the w 7 orld de- 
clares, how vital, then, must be divine knowledge — 
the knowledge of God, and of His mind and purpose. 
Many false Christs have gone out into the world; 
like Joshua, we may be able to recognize the true, 
and not be deceived by the false. 

In 1864, Grant ordered my regiment to Sycamore 
Church and Cox's Mills, near Black Water Station, 
in front of Petersburg, to guard large supplies there. 
General Hill, learning of our rich stores there, in- 
cluding 2,500 cattle, charged upon us with his whole 
division. After a sharp fight, we were ordered to 
fall back to Sycamore Church, under the protection, 
as we supposed, of Major Baker, but he and his 
forces had been captured. As I moved on, with my 
command, an officer, dressed in our uniform, and 
entirely familiar with our position and movement, 
ordered me to advance. I did so, but in a moment 
was covered with a revolver, and ordered to sur- 
render. 



132 PATRIOTISM. 

We were fairly duped. This deception cost us all 
our supplies and hundreds of precious lives, though 
I escaped, with five men. 

But we cannot afford to make mistakes, least of 
all in the great campaign for eternal life. Nor are 
serious mistakes necessary — mistakes of a vital sort, 
— if we know the mind and will and purpose of God. 
Hence this book, the Bible of the warrior's sainted 
mother, is our authority on tactics. Follow T these 
instructions and you are safe. 

But there are those who claim to have but little 
need for this book; they receive instructions in all 
things direct from heaven, and hence the Bible is of 
but little use to them. Here is great and imminent 
peril. 

I have known men to monopolize the whole time 
in a testimony meeting, excusing their vaulting 
pride and selfishness on the ground that they were 
directed by the Holy Ghost to do so; and leaders to 
call them to order, under the inspiration, as they 
said, of the same holy Ghost. Certainly one of the 
parties was deceived, for the Holy Ghost never an- 
tagonizes himself, nor gives contradictory orders 
to His servants. I instinctively keep my hand on 
my pocket-book, paralyzed as it is, when in cc mpany 
with men who are so excessively familiar with God, 
and who claim direct instructions regarding all the 
trivial affairs of e very-day life. 

You have probably read of Freeman, a Massa- 
chusetts murderer. Heaven commanded him, so he 



TIMELINESS. 133 

said, as Abraham of old was commanded, to slay his 
child. And the beautiful, budding life, folded its 
leaves beneath the chilling kisses of night. 

Bismarck is reported to have said that Germany 
triumphed in the late Franco-Prussian war, because 
the Germans carried Bibles in their knapsacks. 
Would that the world w r ere Germanized in this re- 
spect. One of the crying needs of the hour is men 
and women, like the Bereans, fairly devouring the 
Word of God, and learning daily the will of God. 
If a man stands squarely on the plain teaching of 
the sacred volume, he will know the great Com- 
mander, and his joy and peace and liberty will be 
unspeakable. Away with all feelings, impressions 
and leadings that are not sanctified by the plain ut- 
terances of the eternal Word! The Bible is abso- 
lutely true to him who is absolutely true to the 
Bible. Such a man can truly say: "I know that 
I am right; I know that God knows that I am right; 
T know that God knows that I know I am right." 
And, with Job, he may exclaim: "He knoweth the 
w T ay I take, and when he has tried me, He will 
bring me forth as gold." 

It is always the un-Biblical spirit of cant and 
compromise that unnerves the believer, and weak- 
ens the church of God. There was nothing weak 
or vacillating about that great martyr, Lincoln. 
Said he, in the dark days of our awful war: 
"I want to be sure that we are on the Lord's 
side; for the Lord is always on the right side. 



134 PATRIOTISM. 

And to be on the right side is assurance of eventual 
victory." 

"For right is right, since God is God; 
And right the day must win; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 
To falter would be sin." 

Our Commander always appears at the right 
time. You are familiar with Holland's great strug- 
gle for liberty, when Spain came up against her. 
Spain, at that time, claimed to be the arbiter of na- 
tions and the mistress of the world, and the fate of 
Holland was apparently sealed. But just at the 
critical moment God's arm w T as made bare, and the 
shackles of political slavery were broken, and the 
humiliated would-be enslavers were compelled to re- 
turn home with lowered flags and arms reversed. 

It was when Alexander found earth too small for 
his activities, and tearfully bewailed that there wore 
no more worlds for him to conquer, and Grecian wit 
and wisdom and art, and Roman power and state- 
craft were exhausted, and men were sated with life and 
weary of living, that the great Commander revealed 
man to man, as the realm of realms, for conquest. 
It was when Alexander had unified the language of 
the world by conquest, and Ciesar had unified the 
nations of the earth by state-craft, and Grecian wis- 
dom, voiced by Plato, the loftiest uninspired mortal 
that ever lived, declared that if men are to be safely 
and securely led, there must come a revelation from 
the Godhead — in short, when the world had reached 



PRIDE. 135 

Jericho, ready for anything, but not knowing what 
to do — the great Commander came with seraphic es- 
cort, and celestial music, and men and angels hast- 
ened with congratulations, and even kings came 
down from oriental thrones, and in His humble cav- 
ernous court, did IJim honor and homage. 

Here our horizons are rimmed with beaming hope 
— hope for the individual, for the few, for the many, 
for all. Our whole life here is a continual Jericho 
siege with the adversary of our souls. Our enemy 
fired upon the Sumter of liberty and hope and sal- 
vation, not on the 12th of April, but on the 1st of 
January — upon the first of the first January; yes, 
before that, when as yet the earth was without form, 
and void, Satan, "stirred up with envy and revenge," 
sought the overthrow of God. His pride 

"Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host 
Of rebel angels; by whose aid, aspiring 
To set himself in glory above his peers, 
He trusted to have equaled the Most High, 
If He opposed; and, with ambitious aim 
Against the throne and monarchy of God, 
Raised impious war in heaven, and, battle proud, 
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong, flaming from the ethereal sky, 
With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition; there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 
Nine times the space that measures day and night 
To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew, 
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
Confounded, though immortal." 



136 PATRIOTISM. 

Mighty as is our adversary, our Commander is 
mightier still. Many are the victors: Wellington 
at Waterloo; Marlborough at Blenheim; Napoleon 
at Ulin; Cromwell at Marston Moor; Grant at Ap- 
pomattox; Sheridan at Winchester, and Logan at 
Atlanta; but our great Commander is the greatest of 
all. He is the Victor of Victors. He is Hero of 
Heroes. He is King of Kings. 

Often war must precede peace. Many poetize 
concerning peace, and are forever speaking of Jesus 
as the Prince of Peace. They appear to think that 
He will sacrifice everything for peace. Ah, that is 
one of the devil's fallacies. Never did I have any 
peace until the battle was fought, and, with self van- 
quished, and the great Commander triumphant, I 
ground arms at Emanuel's feet. Then, like Joshua 
at Jericho, I exclaimed: "What saith my Lord unto 
His servant;' 5 and, with another: "Speak, Lord, for 
Thy servant heareth." The way of the cross, is the 
way of the crown. We lay our treasures up when 
we lay them down. We triumph when we are con- 
quered. The smiles of peace overspread the war- 
scarred visage of war. The way to live is to die. 

This scene is prophetic of victory. Our great 
commander still aids the Joshuas who report for or- 
ders, and obey them unquestioningly and unmur 
muringly. He is the patron of liberty, virtue and 
righteousness now, as He was in that ancient time. 
This gives us bases for predicting the moral and 
spiritual regeneration of all the Dark Continents, 



PROTECTION. 137 

both east and west, north and south. Our Com- 
mander is marching on, and will continue his victo- 
rious progress until He has put all His enemies and 
all His people's enemies under His feet. Then "the 
wilderness and the solitary places shall be glad . . 
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as 
the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice, 
even with joy and singing." 

Herein is assurance. To the trembling Joshua 
comes the assurance: "See, I have given into thine 
hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty 
men of valor." 

"1 have given." It is still our Father's good 
pleasure to give us the kingdom. 

"Rejoice, then, rejoice, all ye people! 
The wondrous transaction is done ! 
The life-gate is open ; come, enter, 
Through Jesus, the crucified One." 

Nor is our tenure of the kingdom brief; no power 
can wrest it from us. 

"Zion stands, with hills surrounded, 
Zion, kept by Power divine; 
All her foes shall be confounded, 
Though the world in arms combine; 

Happy Zion; 
What a favored lot is thine! 

"In the furnace God may prove thee, 

Thence to bring thee forth more bright; 
But can nsver cease to love thee ; 
Thou art precious in His sight. 

God is with thee — 
God, thine everlasting Light." 



138 PATRIOTISM. 

Weakness, in our great Commander's army, 
never necessitates failure. He is an inexhaustible 
Fountain. Are we circumscribed ? He is omni- 
present. Are we ignorant ? He is omniscient. Are 
we weak ? He is omnipotent. He is the full-handed 
Partner — the unfailing Backer in every Jericho 
struggle, in every high and holy enterprise. It is 
but ours to: 

"Watch and fight and pray, 
The battle ne'er give o'er; 
Renew it boldly every day, 
And help divine implore." 

Many, I doubt not, have read the journals of the 
celebrated Charles R. Darwin. In 1832 he made a 
tour of the world, and on a distant coast discovered 
a people unspeakably barbarous. They had reached 
the lowest ebb. To him, they were beyond recov- 
ery. Philosophy, science, even religion — all were 
of no avail, according to Darwin's thinking. 

But at that very moment God was planning the 
rescue of that long-benighted and beastly people — 
planning, in a mysterious way, His wonders to per- 
form. A parentless, friendless babe was picked up 
on Thomas street, between the bridges, in Bristol, 
England. Having no name, he was christened 
Thomas Bridges — "Thomas" for the street on which 
he was found, and "Bridges" because found between 
two bridges. God called him to go to those very 
people who had so horrified the great Darwin. The 
church was well nigh faithless in the enterprise; but 



VICTOEY. 139 

at last yielded to his burning entreaties, and sent 
him. He translated the Bible into their language; 
he preached Jesus; he practiced his heavenly pro- 
fession, and the tribe was won. England, formerly 
afraid to land her ships at their shores, now opened 
up communications, and even Darwin became a 
patron of those foreign missions. How were they 
saved ? By liberal doses of a Christless Christianity ? 
by agnosticism, rationalism or pseudo free-thought ? 
Ah, no ! By the simple story of our great Com- 
mander, and the Christly life of the missionary. 

God help us, comrades, in life's great and rapidly- 
closing campaign, to both tell the story and exem- 
plify it in our daily lives. And to our great Com- 
mander, the Lord God Omnipotent, we will give all 
the glory, for: 

"When that illustrious day shall rise, 
And all Thine armies shine, 
In robes of victory through the skies. 
The glory shall be thine/ ' 



If solid happiness we prize, 
Within our breast the jewel lies; 

And they are fools who roam; 
The world has nothing to bestow; 
From our own selves our joys must flow, 

And that dear hut our home. 

— Cotton. 

Earth has more awful ruins — one lost mind, 
Whose star is quenched, hath lessons for mankind 
Of deeper import than each prostrate dome, 
Mingling its marble with the dust of Rome. 

There is an hour when vain remorse 
First wakes in her eternal force; 
When pardon may not be retrieved, 
When conscience will not be deceived. 

— Remans. 



ICXL.'/ 




GENERAL SHERMAN. 



GENERAL SHERMAN 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SHERMAN. 

Now Jehosaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried 
with his fathers in the city of David. — 2 Chron. 21. 1. 

William Tecumseh Sherman was truly a great 
man, true friend, brave soldier, skilled leader and 
loyal citizen. Such men never die! A mystic tie 
gives evidence of their immortality. Alexander, 
Caesar, Hannibal, Philip, Xenophon, Frederick, 
Napoleon, Nelson, Grant, Sheridan and Sherman 
have disappeared from off the stage; some long ago, 
others but yesterday, who still seem to live. Yea! 
they do live! The armies are disbanded and many of 
the men are numbered among the dead; but these # 
men, like the patriots of Greece and the leaders of 
civilization, "cannot die." Grant emerging from 
the Wilderness with the always heroic army of the 
Potomac; Sherman sweeping through Georgia like 
a cyclone eight miles wide; Sheridan with his horse 
on fire shooting like a thunderbolt, reversing the 
order of the day at sun-down — are to abide with 
this people through time. 

Sherman, in some respects, had no peers. He 
was born a soldier; like Lincoln, he pleased the 
(145) 



146 PATRIOTISM. 

masses, but unlike him, he did not please the poli- 
ticians. He could never be elected on a national 
ticket because he was too blunt in speech, too reso- 
lute in spirit, too independent in thought to be led 
or lead unorganized men. I once heard a man say 
of his son's failure to secure the prize for. which he 
had contended: "My boy got the crowd, but the 
other fellow got the judges" — hence the prize was 
awarded to the other boy. So with Sherman, — he 
was in the army for business. The citizen said: 

" General Sherman was, taken all in all, the most 
picturesque military figure on either side of the Civil 
war, excepting, perhaps, Stonewall Jackson — a sol- 
dier he greatly resembled in many characteristics. 
He was "the beloved of damsels and of dames," as 
well as of the soldiers and the children. Occasion- 
ally, from the worldly standpoint, imprudent in 
expression, the people respected him all the more 
because he had what is called "the courage of his 
convictions." He was a fierce partisan, but never 
brought his partisanship into social relations, and 
one of those who most deeply mourned him was that 
Southern knight with whom he crossed swords so 
often, and who finally surrendered to him, Joseph 
E. Johnston." 

The principal events of his life are set forth in the 
following sketch: 

He was born at Lancaster, Ohio, February 8th, 
1820. At sixteen years of age he entered West 
Point Military Academy, graduating four years later 



SERVICE. 147 

the sixth in a class of forty-two members. He re- 
ceived his first commission as second lieutenant July 
1, 1840, and was promoted to a first lieutenantcy in 
1841. In 1846, at the beginning of the Mexican 
war, he was sent to California. Keturning to Wash- 
ington, in 1850 he married Ellen Boyle Ewing, 
whose father was then Secretary of the Interior. 
From 1853 to 1859 he was out of the army, being 
successively manager of a bank at San Francisco, 
New York agent of a St. Louis firm, a lawyer at 
Leavenworth, Kansas, and superintendent of the 
Louisiana State Military Academy. 

He began his career in the army in conlmand of 
a brigade in Tyler's division. In 1861 he was made 
a brigadier general of volunteers, and soon became 
first in command of the troops in Kentucky. At the 
battle of Shiloh Sherman was wounded in the hand, 
but refused to leave the field. General Halleck said 
with reference to that engagement that " Sherman 
saved the fortunes of the day." Later he was or- 
dered to Memphis, and was made brigadier general 
on account of his brilliant services in the Vicksburg 
campaign. In October, 1863, he was sent to the 
relief of Kosecrans at Chattanooga, and about the 
same time relieved Burnside, at Knoxville. In 
April he moved against Atlanta with 99,000 men 
and 254 guns, the Confederate army under Johnston 
numbering 62,000 men. In September the enemy 
evacuated Atlanta, after numerous attacks by Union 
forces. Then Sherman captured Savannah, having 



148 PATKIOTISM. 

marched three hundred miles in twenty-four days 
through the heart of Georgia, and achieved a splen- 
did victory. "Sherman's march to the sea" was 
opposed as chimerical by many of those in authority 
when it was first proposed. As soon as he finally 
obtained permission to make the march he ordered 
the wires cut for fifty miles between Atlanta and 
Washington. An attempt was later made by the 
Federal authorities to countermand the order per- 
mitting the march, but Sherman of course could not 
be reached by telegraph. Grant's book states that 
"the rebels had cut the wires." Leaving Savannah, 
Sherman 'captured Charleston, Columbus and Golds- 
boro. Until 1869 he was in command of the mili- 
tary division of the Mississippi. When Grant was 
appointed general of the army, Sherman was pro- 
moted to be lieutenant general, and when Grant 
became president of the United States, Sherman 
succeeded him as general. In 1884, at his own re- 
quest, he was placed on the retired list, with full 
pay and emoluments. For some time General Sher- 
man resided in St. Louis, but for a number of years 
had made his home in New York, where he was a 
great social favorite. His wife died a few years 
ago, and his present family in New York consists of 
two unmarried daughters and a son, besides whom 
two married daughters and another son survive him. 
Such a record is worthy of study, for it shows 
the possibilities that are within the reach of men. 
Some say it is a great thing to be born at the right 



KING OF FORCES. 149 

time and in the right place. True! for much de- 
pends upon the environments into which men are 
thrown. It was of immense value to Sherman that 
he was born in the first quarter of the nineteenth 
century, and that he came into light in Ohio, through 
which great surging tides of thought were passing. 
But remember: he was not the only boy baby born 
in Ohio in 1820. Where are his associates? Wm. 
T. Sherman was not the product of circumstances 
alone, — he was a perfect embodiment of energy. 
Perhaps the greatest characteristic of this man was 
his indomitable energy. When in command of the 
army he was tireless as a worker. Service upon his 
staff was not arduous, for he rarely called upon any 
one to assist him. He attended to nearly all his 
heavy correspondence and read extensively of books 
relating to his profession, besides maintaining an 
intimacy with standard and current literature. In 
addition to this 'and his social duties he found time 
to prepare and give to the public his memoirs, which 
were printed in two volumes in 1875. They dealt 
almost entirely with the Civil War, and gave rise to 
much discussion among army men and others, for in 
literature as in conversation the warrior made no 
attempt to soften his language or mellow the facts. 
He followed the old-time maxim, "Hew to the 
line; let the chips fail where they will." As the 
result, those struck by the chips cried out lustily. 
General H. V. Boynton, soldier and newspaper 
writer, followed with a review of the memoirs, in 



150 PATRIOTISM. 

which he attempted to show where the General 
was wrong. 

In the preface to the first edition of his work, Gen- 
eral Sherman used the following language: "Nearly 
ten years have passed since the close of the Civil 
War in America, and yet no satisfactory history 
thereof is accessible to the public; nor should any 
be attempted until the Government has published 
and placed within the reach of students the abundant 
materials that are buried in the War Department at 
Washington. These are in process of compilation, 
but at the rate of progress for the last ten years it 
is probable that a new century will come before they 
are published and circulated with full indexes to 
enable the historian to make a judicious selection of 
materials. What is now offered is not designed as a 
history of the war or even as a complete account of 
all the incidents in which the writer bore a part, but 
merely his recollection of events corrected by refer- 
ence to his own memoranda." 

He saw at a glance that the Civil War was more 
than a ripple playing over the surface of the nation's 
life; but that conviction, deep prejudices of long 
standing were sure to rend the nation unless the 
people arose in their might. He was pronounced a 
visionary enthusiast when he said it would take 
200,000 men to hold the border States, and some 
went so far as officially to pronounce him a lunatic. 
When he grasped the real weakness of the Confed- 
eracy and marched from Atlanta to the sea, he be- 



MARCH TO THE SEA. 151 

came a hero. Nearly all great men hedge them- 
selves about with stage dignity, but Sherman was 
the one eminent man who could be simply Sherman, 
and not detract anything from his reputation or 
dignity. 

One story which General Sherman told gives 
the inside history of the famous March to the Sea. 
He had been importuning General Grant, Presi- 
dent Lincoln and the War Department every day 
for permission to cut loose from his base of sup- 
plies and march through the country from Atlanta 
to the coast. Stanton thought he was foolish; Lin- 
coln was afraid he'd lose his army; and while Gen- 
eral Grant in the main agreed with the plan, there 
were staff influences around him which were hostile 
to its execution. One day Sherman received a tele- 
gram from Lincoln saying he might use his discre- 
tion. He instantly ordered one of his staff to take 
a detachment and tear down the wires for fifty miles 
between Atlanta and Washington. This circum- 
stance he never told publicly, but he said that when 
General Grant's book was published he was inter- 
ested in a statement which it contained to the effect 
that General Rawlins went to Washington to coun- 
termand the order permitting Sherman to march to 
tbe sea, but he found that "the rebels had cut the 
wires." 

His eager spirit was sometimes restless under the 
restraints put on him by others in authority failing 
to see and realize the magnitude of the war. His 



152 PATRIOTISM. 

letter to his brother John, written from Memphis, 
Tenn., August 13, 1862, gives a clear insight into 
his nature: 

"My Dear Brother: I have not written to you for 
so long that I suppose you think I have dropped the 
correspondence. For six weeks I was marching 
along the road from Corinth to Memphis, mending 
roads, building bridges^ and all sorts of work. At 
last I got here and found the city contributing gold, 
arms, powder, salt, and everything that the enemy 
wanted. It was a smart trick on their part, thus to 
give up Memphis, that the desire of gain to our 
Northern merchants should supply them with the 
things needed in war. I stopped this at once and 
declared gold, silver, treasury notes and salt as 
much contraband of war as powder. I have one 
man under sentence of death for smuggling arms 
across the lines and hope Mr. Lincoln will approve 
it. But the mercenary spirit of our people is too 
much, and my orders are reversed, and I am ordered 
to encourage the trade in cotton, and all orders pro- 
hibiting gold, silver and notes to be paid for it are 
annulled by orders from Washington. Grant prompt- 
ly ratified my order, and all military men here saw at 
once that gold spent for cotton went to the purchase 
of arms and munitions of war. Bat what are the 
lives of our soldiers to the profits of the merchants ? 
After a whole year of bungling, the country has at 
last discovered that we want more men. All knew 
it last fall, as now, but it was not popular. Now 



CRITICISM. 153 

13,000,000 (the General evidently intending only 
1,300,000; men are required, when 700,000 were 
deemed absurd before. It will take time to work 
up these raw recruits, and they will reach us in 
October, when we should be in Jackson, Meridian, 
and Yicksburg. Still I must not growl. 

" I have purposely kept back, and have no right to 
criticise, save that I am glad that the papers have at 
last found out that we are at war, and have a for- 
midable enemy to combat. Of course I approve the 
confiscation act, and would be willing to revolution- 
ize the government so as to amend that article of 
the constitution which forbids the forfeiture of lands 
to the heirs. My full belief is we must colonize the 
country de novo, beginning with Kentucky and 
Tennessee, and should remove 4,000,000 of our peo- 
ple at once south of the Ohio river, taking the farms 
and plantations of the rebels. I deplore the war as 
much as ever, but if the thing has to be done let 
the means be adequate. Don't expect to overrun 
such a country or subdue such a people in one, two, 
or five years. It is the task of half a century. 
Although our army is thus far south, it can not stir 
from our garrisons. Our men are killed or captured 
within sight of our lines. I have two divisions here 
— mine and Hurlbut's — about 13,000 men; am build- 
ing a strong fort, and think this is to be one of the 
depots and bases of operations for future movements. 
The loss of Halleck is almost fatal. We have no 
one to replace him. Instead of having one head, 



154 PATRIOTISM. 

we have five or six, all independent of each other. 
I expect our enemies will mass their troops and fall 
upon our detachments before new re-enforcements 
come. I can not learn that there any large bodies of 
men near us here. There are detachments at Holly 
Springs and Senatobia, the present termini of the 
railroads from the South; and all the people of the 
country are armed as guerrillas. Curtis is at Helena, 
eighty miles south, and Grant is at Corinth. Bragg's 
army from Tripoli has moved to Chattanooga, and 
proposes to march on Nashville, Lexington and Cin- 
cinnati. They will have about 75,000 men. Buell is 
near Huntsville, with about 30,000 men, and I sup- 
pose detachments of the new levies can be put in Ken- 
tucky from Ohio and Indiana in time. The weather 
is very hot, and Bragg cannot move his forces very 
fast; but I fear he will give trouble. My own opin- 
ion is that we ought not to venture too much into 
the interior until the river is safely in our possession, 
when we could land at any point and strike inland. 
To attempt to hold all the South would demand an 
army too large even to think of. We must colonize 
and settle as we go South, for in Missouri there is 
as much strife as ever. Enemies must be killed or 
transported to some other country. 

' ' Your affectionate brother, 

" W. T. Sherman." 

He was a man of positive convictions. In Jan- 
uary previous to the attack on Sumter he sent in 
his letter of resignation as President of the Louisiana 



CONVICTIONS. 155 

State Military Academy, which he held that time at 
a salary of $5,000. I quote from that letter: "Re- 
cent events foreshadow a great change, and it be- 
comes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws 
from the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my 
allegiance to the old Constitution as long as a frag- 
ment of it survives, and my longer stay here would 
be wrong in every sense of the word. In that event 
I beg that you will send or appoint some authorized 
agent to take charge of the arms and munitions of 
war here belonging to the State, or direct me what 
disposition shall be made of them. I beg you to 
take immediate steps to relieve me as Superintend- 
ent the moment the State determines to secede, for 
on no earthly account will I do any act or think any 
thought hostile to or in defiance of the old Govern- 
ment of the United States. " 

This conviction made him naturally and instinct- 
ively a soldier. He believed the Rebellion to be 
treasonable and treated it as such, and he never 
found forgiveness at the hands of the Southern 
people. His convictions saved him at all times. In 
'84, when they pressed him to become a candidate 
for the Presidency, he positively declined, saying: 

"I know the experience of Jackson, Harrison, 
Grant, Hayes and Garfield made them Presidents, 
but the civilians of the United States must take this 
thankless office and leave us old soldiers to take the 
peace we fought for and earned." 



156 PATRIOTISM. 

The St. Louis Globe- Democrat sa}'s: 

"The record of General Sherman's military ser- 
vices is specially commended to grateful apprecia- 
tion by reason of the fact that at all times, as long 
as he lived, he insisted that there were two sides to 
the war, one of which was thoroughly right and the 
other altogether wrong. He did not treasure any 
resentment against those who tried to dissolve the 
Union, but he maintained from first to last that the 
undertaking was without reasonable provocation 
and in violation of the principles of justice, morality 
and humanity. When peace came he did not for- 
get how the war had been brought on, and with 
what desperation the life of the Nation had been 
assailed. He was willing to forgive the offense, but 
not to concede anything in its justification. His 
sense of patriotism was so deep and abiding that he 
could never find an excuse for the loss and grief, the 
bloodshed and suffering, that came to pass through 
the efforts of the South to destroy the government. 
He never asked that punishment should be inflicted 
upon those who were responsible for the rebellion 
and its calamities; like a true soldier he was mag- 
nanimous, and the condition of the Southern people 
at the close of the contest appealed to his sympathy 
with peculiar force and tenderness. But at the same 
time he never hesitated to place the blame where it 
belonged and to say that the South invited the mis- 
fortunes by which she was finally overwhelmed. 

"This fact is worth remembering in the season of 



THE NORTH. 157 

mourning over the old hero's death. It conveys a 
lesson that we need to keep constantly in mind and 
to impress upon the rising generation. The theory 
that the war involved nothing more than a dispute 
about doubtful points, and that the two sides were 
equally right in their respective ways, is a falsifica- 
tion of history. There were no questions of mere 
expediency to be determined; the struggle was one 
in which principles were at stake, and when it ended 
certain things were established that had vital and 
splendid meaning. The fact that the Southern 
armies did valiant fighting is to be acknowledged, 
but it is not necessary to say that they fought thus 
because they were inspired by the same high senti- 
ments that animated the Union armies. There was 
a distinct and significant difference between the two 
in that respect, and we cannot afford to lose sight 
of it on any account. One side was defending the 
Nation against a wicked attack on the part of the 
other, and it is useless to say that both had the 
same degree of loyalty and integrity to sustain 
and vindicate them. The matter is not one to be 
discussed in any spirit of enmity. It is simply a 
great historic truth to be recognized and perpetuated 
in our political philosophy. The North was right 
and the South was wrong, as Sherman always de- 
clared; and any view of the war which divides its 
honors in even measure is contrary alike to the de- 
mands of common justice and the teachings of com- 
mon sense." 



158 PATRIOTISM. 

Many of the Southern papers have commented on 
Sherman's death in a spirit of fairness; some of them 
have spoken appreciatively of him as one of Amer- 
ica's greatest soldiers; but the Columbus (Ga.) Sun 
says: 

1 'In his operations in this State, he concentrated 
all the brutalities and called up all the horrors of 
war. But it was largely old men, women and chil- 
dren who trembled and fled before the sword and 
torch which he upheld. The brutal treatment of 
helpless people, the ashes of Atlanta, and the devas- 
tation and desolation that marked his march to the 
sea, were the records of his prowess as a soldier. 
It was barbarism, but he said it was war. It was 
war, but in summing up the character of the man 
who inaugurated it, Georgians cannot forget it, nor 
give him praise for it. His policy was not the 
policy of that greater soldier, whom the North 
idolized and the South forgave. 1 ' 

"Forgave," indeed! Did the woman who was 
told to go in peace and sin no more forgive her ab- 
solved When the helpless, hopeless, hungry South 
surrendered without truce or terms, when Grant 
dismissed its erring, but valiant, soldiery to their 
homes upon the one condition that they should re- 
turn, resume their plows and their trades, "not to 
be molested so long as they obeyed the laws and 
Constitution of the United States," was it expected 
that in less than the lifetime of a man the whole 
South again should bid open defiance to the laws 



SOUTHERN JOURNALS. 159 

and Constitution, and should boast that in 1865 it 
' 'forgave" its conqueror? 

The terms granted by Sherman to Johnston's sol- 
diers were even more magnanimous than those 
which Grant gave to Lee's. The lately departed 
General of the Armies of the Nation was as tender 
in peace as he was strong in war. The South never 
had a better friend than Sherman, never will have. 
We regret such demonstrations as several of the 
Southern journals have made concerning the death 
of Sherman. We regret them exceedingly. We 
regret all Southern dissensions from that perfect 
nationality which is evidently the recognition and 
enforcement of "one law, one element," in all parts 
of the country. There cannot be two paramount 
policies in two sections of the Nation. That which 
hath been is that which shall be; the doctrine of the 
widest freedom and the deepest loyalty to the Na- 
tion ultimately will prevail in all the States. This 
was Sherman's creed, it is ours, and it is the creed 
of the North, though the South may not believe so. 
The South did not believe that the creed of the 
North was National, until the dreadful voice of the 
sword announced it. 

With this, which sometimes made him appear un- 
kind and severe, Sherman was social and kind- 
heartedness itself. A New York editor says: 

"After his retirement General Sherman became a 
social lion. His engagements would long ago have 
worn out a man of ordinary mold and make, but 



160 PATRIOTISM. 

the veteran of a hundred campaigns entered his new- 
life with the keen zest and endurance of an iron 
constitution. His ready though occasionally caustic 
wit, his entertaining personal reminiscences, and 
developed talent as raconteur and after-dinner 
speaker made him much sought. Compliments and 
attentions, even flattery, were showered upon him, 
and the latter days of the seamed old warrior were 
his most delightful. All his social triumphs seemed 
only to accentuate his democratic and at the same 
time soldierly ways and habits of expression. His 
moods, when he had the cares and responsibilities 
of office upon him, were variable. At times he was 
severe and at others the gentlest, mildest, most 
warm-hearted of men. During the last eight years 
his nature took its natural bent and his finer quali- 
ties became wholly predominant. Blunt and honest 
to a marked degree, actions often ascribed to a 
harsh disposition were but the result of General 
Sherman's inability to clothe his refusals of favors 
requested or his commands in the purple and fine- 
linen language of the courtier. He went straight 
for a point and achieved it without much choosing 
of words. He had such an utter, manly and char- 
acteristic contempt for ordinary diplomacy that it is 
doubtful whether he ever attempted to conceal his 
views, however radical they may have been. He is 
one of the few public men of the last quarter of a 
century who had the courage of his convictions and 
was wholly free from fear in his expressions." 



GIVING AWAY ITIS SECRETS. 161 

Again, he never failed to see the fitness of things. 
On one occasion he had halted for rest on the piazza 
of a house by the roadside, when it came into the 
mind of an old Confederate who was present that 
he might pick up a bit of valuable information by 
careful quizzing. He knew by Sherman's dress that 
he was an officer, but had no suspicion as to his 
rank. When he heard a staff officer use the title of 
"General" he turned to Sherman in surprise and 
said: "Are you a General?" 

"Yes, sir," was the response. 

"What is your name?" 

"Sherman." 

"Sherman? You don't mean General Sherman?" 

"That's who I mean." 

"How many men have you got?" 

"Oh, over a million." 

"Well, General, there's just one question I'd like 
to ask, if you have no objections." 

"Go ahead." 

"Where are youns a going to go when you go 
away from here?" 

"Well, that's a pretty stiff question to ask an en- 
tire stranger under these circumstances, but if you 
will give me your word to keep it a secret I don't 
mind telling you." 

"I will keep it a secret; don't have no fear of me." 

"But there is a great risk, you know. What if I 
should tell you my plans, and they should get over 
to the enemy?" 



162 PATRIOTISM. 

"I tell you there is no fear of me." 

"You are quite sure I can trust you?" 

"As your own brother." 

The General slowly climbed into the saddle and 
leaned over to the expectant Confederate, who was 
all eyes and ears for the precious information. "I 
will tell you where I am going. I am going — just 
where I please." And he did, and there was not 
power enough in the South to stop him. 

He never forgot the boys. When on his cam- 
paigns his habits were of the simplest. He arose 
early and was up late at night. In the face of the 
enemy his regular ration of sleep was five hours. 
Reveille often found him in the saddle and out on 
the most exposed parts of his front. The orders 
were that he should be aroused at any hour of the 
night to receive reports. In the Atlanta campaign 
he set the example of discarding tents and reducing 
baggage to a minimum. There was but one tent at 
headquarters, and that was used by the Adjutant- 
General and his clerks. Sherman and his staff slept 
on the ground under a tent-fly, which was stretched 
over a pole resting in the crotches of convenient 
saplings. It was often said that Sherman's head- 
quarters were in a candle-box, as all his papers were 
carried in one of these homely receptacles which had 
been emptied of its original contents. The soldiers 
knew him affectionately as "Old Tecump." His 
middle name, "Tecumseh," was given him by his 



DRUMMER BOY. 163 

father, who, in the war of 1812, had conceived a 
great admiration for the Shawnee war-chief. 

"Uncle Billy" was the name by which he was 
generally known in the army during the March to 
the Sea. He had but a single sentry at head- 
quarters; but no one, whether officer or private, who 
desired speech with the General was stopped. He 
always had a cordial and encouraging word for the 
men when he rode along the line in front of the ene- 
my or when a moving column passed him. For the 
details of military etiquette and ceremony he had 
slight care; from him promptitude and steadiness in 
action and endurance in marching always evoked 
praise. Unless his plans required secrecy he was 
free and outspoken in his communications, and this 
very frankness often deceived the enemy and mis- 
led him as to Sherman's intentions. 

He never forgot the little drummer boy who came 
to him in the hot fight at the rear of Vicksburg, and 
when it came in his power he had the youngster ap- 
pointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. The 
troops were in the heat of the engagement, when 
Sherman heard a shrill, childish voice calling out to 
him that one of the regiments was out of ammuni- 
tion, and that the men would have to abandon their 
position unless he sent to their relief. He looked 
down, and there by the side of his horse was a mite 
of a boy, with the blood running from a wound in 
his leg. 

4 'All right, my boy," said the General, "I'll send 



164 PATRIOTISM. 

them all they need, but as you seem to be badly 
hurt, you had better go and find a surgeon and let 
him fix you up." 

The boy saluted and started to the rear, while 
Sherman prepared to give the required order for 
the needed ammunition. But he once more heard 
the piping voice shouting back at him: "General, 
caliber fifty-eight! Caliber fifty-eight!" Glancing 
back, he saw the little fellow, all unconscious of his 
wound, running again toward him to tell of the 
character of the ammunition needed, as another size 
would have been of no use, and left the men as 
badly off as before. Sherman never could speak 
too highly of the little fellow's pluck; he asked him 
his name, complimented him, and promised to keep 
an eye upon him, which he did. He often related 
the story, and always with praises for the little sol- 
dier's bravery. 

Comrades, we have lost a true friend who was a 
typical American, a great soldier, a born leader, an 
intelligent general, a true patriot and a loyal citizen. 
He had untiring energy and restless activity. In 
defeating Johnston he defeated the man whom his- 
tory will proclaim as the greatest general of the 
South. Alexander never succeeded better and 
Napoleon never outstripped him. The peerless 
Logan looked up to him as an intelligent leader. 
He was a giant intellectually, one of those American 
products of which all are justly proud. He was a 
man of mighty convictions. He was loyal to the 



IMMORTAL. 165 

end of his life. Such men should have a place in 
the hearts of all for years to come. We who are 
left behind should not go to the mountains to look 
for the bones of those who have fallen, but take up 
the mantles of the departed as Elisha did of old, 
and go on with the work, so as to be ready for the 
roll-call when summoned to the encampment on 
high. 



CHAPTER IX. 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 

By Oliver O. Howard, Major General, United States Army. 



(Published at the time of his death in the New Y ork Independent.) 



My own relationship to General W. T. Sherman 
has been such that it is difficult to speak or write of 
him as I would of any other officer with whom I have 
been associated. It was regarded by me, and I 
think by him, more like that of father and son than 
of general and subordinate. This relationship was 
only incidental while we were both commanding 
brigades under Generals McDowell and McClellan 
in the early part of the war. I read of him after he 
went West, saw the grand plans that he insisted on, 
plans of large scope and demanding more men than 
any other dared to ask; so much so that those who 
traduced him and General Grant on account of the 
first day's disaster at Shiloh, took advantage of the 
apparent extravagance and tried to make the country 
think that he had become delirious. True, nobody 
believed it, nobody in places of responsibility; but 
the reports nevertheless wounded Sherman, who 
(167) 



168 PATEIOTISM. 

was always exceedingly sensitive under aspersion. 
Aspersion never drove him from a course of conduct 
that he deemed wise and best; but cruel accusers 
can have the satisfaction of knowing that they suc- 
ceeded in hurting a sensitive heart — a satisfaction 
that must be delightsome to cold-blooded malignity. 

The fact is that Sherman having been located in 
Louisiana at the outbreak of the war, and being in- 
timately associated with numerous public men, knew 
at once what was coming when the resistance of the 
conspirators found its starting point at Fort Sumter. 
He, in his capacious mind, measured the length and 
breadth and far-reaching scope of the well-laid plan 
and the practical measures to sustain it, which years 
of secret discussion had finally brought into exceed- 
ing completeness. So when he came North, visited 
General Scott, President Lincoln and Cabinet offi- 
cers near the outbreak of the Kebellion, he im- 
pressed them greatly, but was so optimistic and 
prophetic of large undertakings and great conse- 
quences that they, following their hopes rather than 
the facts, imputed to him exaggeration. 

Time justified all his predictions. I knew of these 
things. He appeared to me quite early meteoric in 
his action and doings; but I had not come in per 
sonal contact with him to any extent until we met 
at Chattanooga after Kosecrans 1 defeat of Chicka- 
mauga, and during Grant's and Thomas' preparation 
in that little besieged nook half encompassed by the 
Tennessee River, when Longstreet sat upon the top 



FIRST APPEARANCE AT CHATTANOOGA. 169 

of Lookout and Bragg upon Missionary Ridge only 
wailing like birds of prey to swoop down upon the 
remnants nearly ready for their consumption. 

You should have seen Sherman when he first ap- 
peared at Chattanooga. It is a scene that I have 
often described — an upper room; present Grant, 
Sheridan, Thomas, Gordon Granger, and a few 
other prominent men. Sherman had just arrived 
ahead of his troops, his column, the old Arm} 7 
of Tennessee, coming from the Mississippi. He 
bounded into the room with joyous heartiness. 

" How are you, Grant ?" 

' ' How are you, Sherman ? Take the high-back 
chair. " 

"No, Grant, that is for you." 

But Grant must give it to age. 

" Well, if you put it on that ground, I must 
accept." 

So he takes the chair and the offered cigar, and 
then instantly commences that singular flow of 
pregnant words so magnificently described by Mr. 
Depew in one of the morning journals. No one 
ever heard military plans more thoroughly sifted, 
objections being made and answered, than on that 
night. Then was revealed to my eyes the character 
of each model before me. I realized Sheridan's 
vigor, something of Thomas' completeness of re- 
search and fixedness of purpose, of Grant's univer- 
sality of acquirement and clear-cut judgment. But 
I thought then, Sherman is eccentric; he is differ- 



170 PATRIOTISM. 

ent from the rest; he is quick as lightning; he is a 
genius. 

Subsequent experience only confirmed me in my 
estimate of the man. He had no equal in strategic 
combinations, for a quick comprehension of his ene- 
mies' plans and locations, even in a blind forest 
country, for rapid changes, adapting himself at once 
to a new situation in a campaign, as when he decided 
and did reorganize his own force for the march to 
the sea and through the Carolinas, and sent the 
sturdy Thomas forthwith to Nashville, supporting 
him by such men as A. J. Smith and J. M. Schofield, 
and other successful and energetic commanders. His 
projects were approved, and they were executed to 
the letter; and surely through this planning and 
execution the Confederacy received its disabling if 
not its mortal wound. 

A friend this morning, speaking of the hope that 
General Sherman might yet recover, for he was only 
seventy-one, I could not help answering: " Sherman 
is older than that." Yes, age in such times as we 
have been through cannot be reckoned by years. 
Think of the strain of the spring campaign of 1864, 
when the whole Western responsibility was thrown 
upon Sherman, Grant having gone to stay by the 
Eastern force; for fifteen days under fire every day, 
with only three days' intermission, under fire of artil- 
lery, and very often within range of the enemy's rifles. 
He was constantly on the qui vive, using his whole 
mind. He slept, it is true, but never long at a time. 



CAUGHT NAPPING. 171 

You. are doubtless acquainted with the incidents at 
Resaca, a two days' battle. Early in the morning, 
as the troops were moving into position in columns, 
a rough soldier, noticing some officers lounging near 
a large log, and Sherman sitting upon the lo^ with 
his head drooping, seems to have fancied that he 
had been drinking, and called out quite plainly to a 
companion: "That is the way we are commanded," 
or something like it. Sherman, hearing the remark, 
made the soldiers stop, and said to them, with his usual 
vigor of style: " While you were sleeping, I was 
awake making plans and conducting correspondence, 
and now 1 was just taking a little needed rest." You 
may imagine how ashamed the men were as they 
marched on to do their important work, but work 
not so trying to the strength or exhausting to the 
system as that of their commander. Generally there 
was a strong, abiding faith in Sherman's ability. It 
did not show itself so much as with Sheridan, Thomas 
and Grant in the battles, but in his comprehensive 
grasp of the whole situation. 

Sherman must have studied at some time of his 
life with great assiduity, he must have been reading 
while others were sleeping, for his knowledge, both 
scientific and historic, was certainly marvelous. 
General Blair and I, as we passed through the Caro- 
linas, would undertake to recall a Revolutionary 
battle as we passed from one historic point to 
another. We would have confused recollections of 
such a field as the Cowpens, for example. Blair 



172 PATRIOTISM. 

would say to me, laughingly: " Well, Howard, we 
can settle it by going to Sherman. He knows it 
all." And indeed he did. I noticed once, as we 
were approaching Marietta, with General J. E. John- 
ston between us and that point, the enemy's field 
being still beyond a range of hills, how Sherman 
began to evolve his plans. He came over to my 
bivouac of an evening, and told me in a running 
conversation, with an occasional use of his pencil, of 
the entire situation and surroundings of Marietta, of 
the roads, of the hills, of the river, mapping out to 
me a detail such as a reconnoitering officer would 
have given if there had been no enemy there, and 
he had had a favorable opportunity for a complete 
survey. 

I said: "How do you know all this, General ?" 

"Oh, when I was a young man I was stationed at 
Charleston for a while, and I traveled over this 
country." 

Twenty years' interval had not blotted from his 
mind the topographical features of the river valley. 
It indicated, of course, the habit of intense observa- 
tion. 

Sometimes the General, during our campaigns, 
would ride for hours without speaking a word, occa- 
sionally dropping his head forward upon his breast 
as his horse would jog along accompanying other 
horses without the necessity of the guiding rein. 
General Grant called that habit of Sherman's 
"boning," a West Point phrase for intense study. 



MORAL QUALITIES. 173 

Yes, this habit of intense thinking prolonged made 
him live two years in one. He came near breaking 
down at Atlanta physically. One day I came in and 
a great numbness had seized one of his arms and 
shoulders, and an orderly was rubbing him. Then 
it was that he pointed out to me his hope for the 
coming campaign; then it was that he put his finger 
upon Goldsboro, N. C, and said: "That is the 
point we must reach." 

You may ask me what Sherman's genius consisted 
in. It was like that of Columbus. He saw new 
continents before they were discovered, and he had 
the energy to formulate the proper plans and the 
ability to inspire others with a sufficient enthusiasm 
for their accomplishment. It was like that of Napo- 
leon, for he comprehended his enemy's abilities at a 
glance and brought his troops to just the points 
essential to his discomfiture; and he inspired his 
lieutenants not only with confidence but with affec- 
tion; they loved him, and love him still, those who 
are living, with an affection that Napoleon Bona- 
parte, with his want of fundamental principle, could 
never inspire. 

Sherman's moral qualities were more developed 
than his war companions used to think. He never 
willingly did a tyrannical or unjust act. Of course 
to a great leader like him the conduct of subordinates 
was often imputed to himself, and he had much of 
Grant's magnanimity which led him to bear patiently 
unjust accusations, but not always. It was natural 



174 PATRIOTISM. 

for him to resent insults and blunt as far as he could 
the sharp stings of opposition. Once I was near 
him when an account was given of the last great re- 
view at Washington. The speaker closed it as if it 
ended the day before the Western troops passed the 
President's stand. This fretted Sherman as such 
things always would, and so he replied by showing 
what he deemed to be the superiority of Western 
troops. He was so worried about this little incident 
that for a time nearly everybody who came near him 
received an abrupt rejoinder. In this way he often 
lost strong personal friends. But there was no 
depth to his resentments, and they didn't last. He 
was the quickest to forgive. 

Perhaps there is nothing pleasanter to remember 
than the last two years of Sherman's life here in 
New York. It has been a review of the past, a re- 
joicing in the present, and an optimistic prophecy 
of the glorious future for the country. He delighted 
to have his two wing commanders by his side — 
General Slocum and myself. I do not think he ever 
seemed happier than when we were together. He 
held General Slocum and General Schofield in very 
high esteem. He would say of them: "They are 
capable of large combinations. They are true men. " 

It is not quite true what we see in the papers at 
the death of each leader, that the great men of our 
generation have passed away. History will find 
many another able leader, many an officer of large 
brain, of magnificent courage, of quick insight and 



ESTIMATE OF GRANT. 175 

ibundant accomplishment, junior, of course, to the 
great leaders who have gone, but in many respects 
and in undoubted genius, Sherman is ahead. He 
was essential to Grant's singular completeness as a 
warrior. 



CHAPTER X. 



WISDOM AND WAR. 
By Kev. George H. Corey, D. D. 
Wisdom is better than weapons of war.— Eccl. ix. 18. 

These words affirm the supremacy of wisdom. 
Its salutary creations and ministries in the varied 
spheres of civil, social and moral, life, surpass all 
warlike agencies. Wisdom is superior to force. It 
does not follow, however, that the weapons of war 
are useless. They have their place and value, and 
are efficient for the moral uses to which they are 
ordained in the discipline and development of the 
world. War is a dire calamity, involving moral 
hazard and woe. Stern, stormful, and grim, it has 
darkened the world with fear and torn it with 
violence; with bloody heel, it has trampled upon 
justice, crushed beneficence, destroyed happiness, 
superseded every law of the Decalogue — ignored 
every principle of the Beatitudes, and silenced all 
laws but that of military necessity. But for all that 
it has its providential place — its beneficent side. 
Unless we surrender the right of self-preservation 
and concede that man, abused, crushed, robbed, and 
despoiled on every hand, must submit without re- 
sistance, war is inevitable. We may outgrow the 
(177) 



178 PATRI0TIS3I. 

conditions that seem to make a resort to arms nec- 
essary, but in the past war has been a civilizer. 
Following almost every great war there has been a 
new impulse to progress. In the early ages, when 
the means of intercommunication were limited, and 
the art of printing was unknown, nations in close 
proximity were ignorant of each other. Isolation 
meant deterioration, decay, death. War brought 
them together — became a means of intercourse, com- 
munication of knowledge, familiarity with each 
other's homes, institutions, usages, arts, and an inter- 
fusion of ideas that lifted raw, brutish people out of 
their stupor and stagnation to liberty, life, and 
power. Old conventions and abuses were broken; 
old prejudices, superstitions, dynasties were sun- 
dered; old chains were snapped into fragments. 
Nations burst their former boundaries, crossed their 
blood and sharpened their brains, liberalized their 
judgments and enlarged their experience. In their 
wild mountain fastnesses the rude Goth and Vandal 
must have remained a coarse, barbarous people. 
Undisturbed in her material glory the Koman 
Empire must have sunk deeper and deeper into 
luxury, license, and lethargy. But the northern 
barbarian looked upon the once magnificent, though 
now effete civilization, and was smitten with its 
splendor; and he came, a rough bridegroom from 
the forest, for this southern bride. It was a wild 
wooing and a fiercer wedlock, but the marriage was 
pronounced; the domestic doors of Europe swung 



TERRITORY. 179 

wide on their rusty hinges; the nations mixed; and 
although this was effected through invasions, fire and 
sword, through campaigns, sieges, and slaughters, 
this mingling of races has given us civilized, cultured 
Europe. The world could ill afford to spare the 
fruit of its battles and its revolutions. How ter- 
rible was the process of the Greek wars of Alex- 
ander in their wide devastations, and how deadly 
and far the flight of the Roman eagle, with his dire 
talons, pitiless beak, and imperial ambition. Yet 
now we see what failed to dawn on their vision — 
how Alexander and Caesar were preparing a path 
for Providence. The Greek conquests furnished the 
compacting influence that provided readers through 
the civilized world for the Greek Gospels of the 
New Testament, and for the Greek septuagent of 
the Old Testament. The Persian dreamed not of 
such a result as he rushed westward on Marathon 
and Salamis. The Macedonian Phalanx had no 
such thought when it rushed eastward to Arbela. 
So the Roman invasions and conquests opened the 
provinces of their world for the message of a higher 
wisdom. The nations trampled by martial squad- 
rons became the material, compacted under the 
unity of Hellenic literature and Greek civilization, 
and the unity of Roman law and polity, for the 
building of that fairer edifice of Christian civilization 
upon which God's eye rested through all the tur- 
moil and carnage of those Pagan battle-fields. 

So the race that inherits the British Isles were 



180 PATRIOTISM. 

triturated together, as the painter rubs into unity 
the colors on his palette, from the days of the Hep- 
tarchy down, by the conflicts and agonies of cen- 
turies. 

The wars that tracked the Protestant Reformation 
on the soil of Germany, Holland, France, England, 
and Scotland, and the later struggles of the English 
Commonwealth, scattered wretchedness and woe on 
every side, and much that was wrong; but who 
could well spare from European and American 
history the deeds of truth and life then sown? The 
good far outweighed tne evil. Could literature, 
could freedom, could religion forego the heroes, 
sages, confessors, and martyrs that emerged in those 
trials, grew wiser and holier in that fiery furnace, 
and bequeathed to us their inspiring testimony and 
their enduring trophies? Nay, verily! the world 
cannot part with the fruit of its bitter struggles. It 
is doubtful whether human nature can be trusted in 
profound and unbroken peace and prosperity, with 
its mortal passions, mortal sluggishness and selfish- 
ness, without hostile collisions. Had war never 
come, centuries would continue to roll away, and 
in all nations there would be nothing but toil, accu- 
mulation, and the multiplication of comfort and 
luxuries. Poverty, thrift, prosperity, wealth, lux- 
ury, effeminancy, dissipation, degradation, death — 
in these nine words the fate of empires is told. 
Who shall say, therefore, that war has not its moral 
uses? The great Napoleon said: " The conscription 



DEFENSE OF INSTITUTIONS. 181 

is the everlasting root of the nation, its moral purifi- 
cation, the real foundation of its habits." I suppose 
that he meant that the bond of that dread liability 
which holds every family in a nation to loyalty and 
love, that will surrender its choicest sons to die for 
their country, inspires a principle of sobriety, of 
manliness, of sacrifice, of obedience to the law, of 
consecration to the commonwealth, which nothing 
else could impart. How else shall we defend our 
altars and our homes ? How maintain our institu- 
tions when assailed? How overthrow deep-seated 
injustice, repair the waste of intolerable oppression, 
redeem and purify prevalent corruption, or renew 
and invigorate a wasting effeminancy? It is far 
better that the moral sentiments and the material 
interests of society should be in fierce collision than 
in a state of paralysis and decay. Believe me, then, 
however fearful the field of strife and carnage, there 
is something more grievous to a people than war, 
than civil war itself, with its appalling progeny of 
evil. The loss of public virtue, the spread of false- 
hood, the reign of treachery, the exaltation to places 
of honor of the illiterate, the vulgar, the sordid and 
rapacious; the depreciation of manhood and its 
liberal impulses and grand attributes; the extinction 
of that faith in its own righteousness and power 
which is the life of a Nation and which has nerved 
the smallest State to cope with empires and success- 
fully resist them, and which, as it is ever its orna- 
ment of purest gold, never fails to be in the hour of 



182 PATEIOTISM. 

danger its shield of adamant; these are evils that far 
surpass the destructiveness of those to which, even 
in its most lavish riotousness, war gives birth. The 
havoc that war makes may be repaired. Industry, 
art, ambition survive, although wide regions are 
laid waste. But the desecration of manhood, the 
corruption of virtue, the enthronement of vicious 
principles, lead to inevitable and permanent decay. 
Still, let us remember that war is medicine, not food; 
it is surgery, not calisthenics; it is judgment, not 
mercy. Inevitable as I believe it to be in the pres- 
ent constitution of the world, subserving as it has 
in the past a high moral purpose, I still believe that 
human society will outgrow it when it outgrows its 
vices, its angry passions, its injustice, selfishness, 
and ambition. Till then the world must share its 
oppression and suffer its cruelty. But let no man 
say that all war is fruitless; that the world has 
gained nothing by its fierceness. Let it not be said 
that nations fight and exhaust themselves, and then 
negotiate and get by negotiation what they sought 
by the sword. The past refutes it; our own history 
disclaims it. In every war we have gained the 
object for which we engaged in the conflict. The 
power of the French was broken by our colonial 
struggle on this continent. The Indians were sub- 
dued. We gained the political independence for 
which our great revolutionary struggle was begun. 
The war of 1812 yielded the results we sought. In 
all contests we have gained the supreme end for 



OBJECT OF WAR. 183 

which we lifted our banner. It seemed to the 
people of the United States that God had entrusted 
them with treasures for the good of all mankind 
which could neither be preserved nor distributed 
were we to become a shattered nation. For a 
nation's life we went to war. We brought back 
that life in full power as our trophy. Orpheus is 
fabled, in seeking his departed spouse, to have gone 
down to the regions of the dead, and by his lyre to 
have won his way, charming every adversary to 
sleep, and to have brought her forth again to life, 
light, and love. Not ours was the charming lyre 
that put all foes to sleep, but with the martial strain 
mingling with the roar of battle, and the tramp of 
squadrons that shook the continent, we marched 
through purgatorial suffering to bring back our lost 
companions, and we brought them. We made war 
the instrument of justice, the herald of liberty. 
When the war is waged for a principle, for benign 
institutions, then the war-wave rolls with the impetus 
and weight of an idea and the energy of moral en- 
thusiasm. 

Now, this is the great struggle that has erected 
this memorial service in which we honor the memory 
of the patriotic dead. 

Signal public service rendered to the State and 
sublime sacrifice for its defence ever command 
reverent admiration. They kindle the generous 
ambition of youthful aspirants for public honor. 
Themistoclcs could not sleep for the trophies in the 



184 PATKIOTISM. 

Ceramicus. Yet when such trophies have faded, 
when the marble urn, the sculptured vase, and the 
brazen cenotaph have crumbled, and all physical evi- 
dences of the existence of the heroes of the past have 
perished, the story of their heroism shall live in the 
memory of mankind, for all good men are gifted 
with a double immortality. Their words, their deeds, 
their lives, become enshrined in benign institutions 
which survive all desolation and change. The 
memory of the wise and patriotic never perish. 
Leonidas and Miltiades, Cato and Tully, Washing- 
ton and Lincoln, Garibaldi and Grant, and they our 
fallen brothers, unknown to fame, but none the less 
noble, they who fell for freedom's cause, live em- 
balmed in the hearts of mankind, and shall live 
when bronze and marble have perished — shall live 
as long as men revere law, honor patriotism, and 
love liberty. What if no classic urn preserves their 
dust, it is held in soil rendered forever sacred by 
their sacrifice. And what if no monument records 
their names, they are graven an imperishable record 
on the Nation's heart. Indeed, this annual memo- 
rial service so generally observed by our citizens, 
auspicious omen and generous privilege, has come 
to be monumental. How gladly do our hearts re- 
spond to its annual return, as we meet with grati- 
tude and joy to rekindle our patriotic fervor, and 
revive the lamp of political hope at the sepulchre of 
the heroic dead. The hour comes to us freighted 
with precious thoughts and noble inspirations. If 



ANNUAL MEMORIAL SERVICE. 185 

the dead body of Lucretia, planted by the hand of 
Brutus, brought forth the living liberators of Rome; 
if the ghastly wounds on Caesar's manly form, as 
Antony lifted his shroud, were the seeds whence 
sprang the tyrants of ten centuries; if an annual 
oration delivered from its sacred precincts made the 
tomb of Leonidas yield a yearly crop of heroes, shall 
the remembrance of our heroic period, with the 
recital of the deeds that made it glorious, be with- 
out corresponding results ? Shall the traditions of 
our heroic struggle fail to find justification in the 
manhood and in the manifest destiny of our country? 

It is a beautiful fact that the record and the 
memories of our revolutionary strife foster the 
highest patriotic sentiment. They stir the blood 
and the brain. They thrill the senses and satisfy 
the imagination. They quicken the Christian's 
faith in the reality of principle, in the influence of 
heroic self-sacrifice, and the power of ideas. For 
that strife liberated from the shock of steel and the 
battle's smoke ideas which have since changed the 
destiny of the world. 

And on this sacred day, as we revert to another 
and a grander struggle, our patriotism must be in- 
spired by the ideas which redeemed those fields 
from insignificance and pledged us to establish and 
unfold them in our country, according to the new 
needs and invitations of the age. 

How significant, then, is this annual memorial 
service! How full of meaning and how sacred its 



186 PATRIOTISM. 

ministries? Every mention of the ideas to which 
our land is consecrated, and the importance of its 
mission, calls up the crisis through which we have 
passed and the dangers with which our institutions 
were confronted. They revive a new interest in 
what may be called the heroic period in our national 
life. They bring before us a period of revolution 
when our private fortunes, our personal affections, 
and our political prospects were overcast, torn with 
doubts and fears, or smitten with blight and ruin. 
They also show us the newness and the magnitude of 
the events; the vastness and unexpectedness of the 
changes; the splendor, and yet the peril, of the op- 
portunities which have opened upon this era. It is 
no exaggeration to call this more than an ordinary 
traditional period in human history. It was, indeed, 
an epoch in the world's social progress; a time of 
humanity's emerging from chivalric barbarism; a 
time of rebellion, and yet a time of revolution and re- 
construction in the organic laws of the land. From 
1860 to 1870 — what a sublime period ! What a place 
will it occupy in the history of the world as the 
great crisis of self government; the awful trial- scene 
of man's asserted equality before the law, the experi- 
mentum crucis of free government! 

We may not pause now to review that period or 
gather into our hearts all the lessons it unfolds: but 
these are among the facts that cannot be overlooked. 
For eighty years the nation had prospered. Every 
decade its enemies prophesied its decline, and every 



SOUTHERN SKY. 187 

decade the figures told how it grew. In national 
wealth, in commerce, agriculture, and manufac- 
tures, in the growth of its cities, springing up as if 
by magic, in the development of the arts, sciences, 
literature, it had astonished the world. Its ideas 
were steadily affecting the policy of nations. The 
subjects of monarchial and despotic governments 
were yearning for personal rights. Hereditary leg- 
islation and the thrones of haughty imperialism 
trembled before the expanding power and glory of 
our democracy. It was secretly kindling the tinder 
of popular justice, which, smouldering for a time, 
seemed destined to shatter every throne of royalty. 
But, alas! a change came; a dark cloud rose on 
the southern sky, eclipsing the ascending sun of lib- 
erty. In her proud career the nation was suddenly 
arrested and almost paralyzed with fear by the tread 
of mighty hosts gathering for the shock of battle. 
Our people were convulsed with new and strange 
emotions. Our fertile fields, laughing with harvests 
sufficient to banquet the world, suddenly became the 
arena of a sublime controversy — a controversy not 
merely local, but of universal interest, upon which 
the whole world gazed, interested, anxious, or af- 
frighted spectators. The cause was worthy the 
arena and the beholders. It could not have been fitly 
tried on any smaller field or in any meaner presence. 
It concerned the human race, and involved the des- 
tinies of the world. It was the battle of mankind. 
It was a quarrel among ourselves, and for no cause 



188 PATRIOTISM. 

less than self-existence; a peril that could spring up 
only from our own bosoms, could have tested the 
character and the value of American institutions. 
What foreign war could have tried the courage, the 
faith, and the patience of our people as this civil war 
has done ? Against what other foe could we have ex- 
pended so much treasure and shed so much precious 
blood ? What other war would not have called out 
chiefly the vulgar and unwholesome passions of our 
people, commercial and economical rivalries, hatred 
of race, pride of blood, and the coarse and degrad- 
ing sentiments that mark the feelings of the Otto- 
man and the Muscovite ? When, in all history, and 
between what other foes, has a war gone on "more 
in sorrow than in anger," under a dreadful sense of 
destiny ? Brothers, we must remember the nature 
of this conflict. It was not in the interests of trade 
nor the rights of commerce; it was not interest of 
race nor the breaking out of ancestral grudges; it 
was not lust of territory nor love of power; it was a 
contest neither sectional, geographical, nor even po- 
litical in any partisan sense. But it was in reality 
a war of principles irreconcilable; of ideas entirely 
antagonistic; of civilizations diverse which can nev- 
er be harmonized ; of purposes that will not parley, 
assimilate, nor compromise. In its local form it 
was a contest between slavery and freedom — in a 
larger sense it was a contest between democracy and 
despotism. It offered to us for solution this ques- 
tion: Has liberty power to protect and perpet- 



CONTROVERSY. 189 

uate the State she adopts, or is anarchy, born of 
sloth and cupidity, strong enough to dethrone this 
fair queen, and like Zenobia in the triumphal car of 
Aurelian, lead her in mockery through the streets of 
foreign capitals, an image of the vanity of preten- 
sions to fitness for freedom and self-government ? 

All this was involved in the fearful controversy. 
And it was a fearful struggle, engaging every 
thought, energy, and affection of our loyal citizens, 
straining every nerve and muscle, arousing every 
hope and fear, testing every principle and feeling; 
calling the attention of our people, as never before, 
to the sacred functions of government, the costly 
nature of citizenship, the worthlessness of private 
wealth without public protection, and the inestima- 
able value of peace, concord, and manhood. These 
were among the important elements of the conflict 
which, though sharp and severe, proved, doubtless, 
our salvation. It wakened us from our stupor, 
interrupted our private pursuits and cupidities seri- 
ously enough to call us to duty and lead to sacrifice, 
always salutary, of property and private plans, of 
ease and comfort, for the cause of the national weal. 

It must not be forgotten that we fought not 
against organized slavery, but against the ideas 
which made slavery possible; against contempt for 
man; against an overvaluation of external posses- 
sions in comparison with internal qualities; of wealth, 
place, and luxury, as weighed with intelligence, 
virtue, and worth. 



190 PATRIOTISM. 

And therefore we came out of the war victorious, 
with the lost sovereignty of the Republic restored, 
with the capacity of our people for self-government 
vindicated, and in some good degree with a regener- 
ated nation. In that strife was generated a senti- 
ment of nationality which showed that loyalty to an 
idea is definite and powerful as loyalty to a throne. 
It revealed that the nation has an ideal character, a 
representative value ; that its glory springs not from 
vast extent, populousness, power or wealth, but 
from the unquestioned dominion of ideas. 

At the same time it also proffered a grand oppor- 
tunity not only to restore but to permanently ex- 
tend our national idea. It seemed the only hope of 
fulfilling the promises of the immortal Declaration, 
and of verifying the hopes of our immortal founders. 
We learned that a nation truly lives only when it 
unfolds its specific ideas and lives according to its 
original type. When it fails to do this it dies. The 
elementary principles of our government are liberty 
and unity. Liberty is the first fact — liberty resting 
not upon a distinction of race, a claim of territory 
or hereditary privileges, not even upon political tra- 
ditions or compacts of any sort, but directly upon 
the primal rights of man. Unity is the other fact — 
unity binding and cementing all the people into one 
grand organization of social and national life. These 
ideas entwined with the very root of the Republic, 
running into every limb, and shooting into every 
fibre, bind us to the recognition of human brother- 



VOICE OF WAR. 191 

hood, to sympathy with liberty wherever it strug- 
gles, and to unflinching opposition to whatever 
crushes the rights, hinders the development, or de- 
nies the essential humanity of man. 

The voice of war summoned us back to our orig- 
inal ideal, and taught us that whatever may be our 
prejudice against race, section, or policy, we are to 
look at them in the light of our own principles. 
Liberty and unity, one and inseparable ; that was 
the marriage vow and that alone can be the marriage 
bond. The inward verifying principles of our gov- 
ernment must be in sympathy with liberty ; its atti- 
tude must be respect for liberty ; the spread of its 
domain must be under the sanctions and for the ends 
of liberty ; for this, more than all things else, gives 
glory to our charter and renown to our history. 
And the vindication of the sovereignty of this prin- 
ciple was the first grand issue of the war ; an issue 
wrought out by the patriot heroes of the land pledg- 
ing heart, brain, and hand — nay, even life itself — 
to the service of keeping our country true to its 
mission and obedient to its primal idea. 

On such a mount of vision as we have reached 
this day in the opening of the second century of our 
historic life, where the tumult of war is hushed, the 
air is still, and the clouds, though not wholly 
scattered, are arched with the gracious bow of prom- 
ise, we look back over the intervening years and 
recall the memory of our founders and heroic de- 
fenders — of the earlier and later sacrifices to liberty 



192 PATRIOTISM. 

— names not born to die. We recall the venerated 
Father of his Country, the first great American, too 
honest to be bought with foreign gold or bribed with 
a kingly crown ; a name that never fails to touch 
the deepest springs of reverence and pride. We 
remember the list of early worthies — John Adams, 
with his patriotic vigor ; the magnetic genius of 
Quincy and the invincible chivalry of Warren ; the 
serene wisdom of Franklin and the unconquerable 
energy of Samuel Adams ; Jefferson with his spec- 
ulative audacity and Hancock with his resolute 
patriotism ; Hamilton, with youthful but profound 
and lucid wisdom ; Jay with his prudent analysis 
and Madison with his elegant research ; Henry Otis 
and Eutledge, with their entrancing symphony of 
eloquence ; Webster, massive and grand, the ex- 
pounder and defender of the Constitution ; Clay, 
genial, brilliant, fascinating ; beside the long roll of 
honor from Sumter to Petersburg — the chivalrous 
Ellsworth, whose mysteriously shadowed face deep- 
ened his boyish beauty ; the knightly Winthrop, 
radiant with young genius and wreathed with the 
choicest offerings of poesy and song ; the brave- 
hearted Lyon, who wrenched victory from the fangs 
of fate ; the eloquent Baker, whose golden lips were 
sealed in death that his spirit might speak to all 
generations ; the sage and soldier, the world- 
renowned Mitchell, who vacated his studio among 
the stars that he might wield the sword of liberty ; 
Sheridan, animate with a daring chivalry that or- 



ULYSSES. 193 

ganizes victory out of defeat ; the gallant Logan, 
easily among the first of our citizen soldiery, brave 
as he was true — adding to his military renown an 
ideal character in which was shown the beauty of 
goodness ; the mighty Ulysses, whose colossal great- 
ness forbids that we should classify his name with 
Caesar, Hannibal, or Napoleon — simple, calm and 
commanding, unconquerable in war, invincible in 
peace, with practical sagacity as a statesman. How 
enviable his fame ! He conquered the foes of his 
country with his sword ; he won them to loyalty 
with his heart. What loving sympathy ! What 
generous magnanimity ! How loyal in his friend- 
ship, how brave in his fidelity ! With what courage 
he held death still with one hand while with the 
other he wrote the history of his army's triumph ! 
And how the world sobbed at -his death. Royal 
hands placed a wreath upon his bier. Confederate 
generals, who contested with him many a hard- 
fought field, with sorrowful hearts and tearful eyes 
followed him to the grave, and to-morrow no State 
will forget to send floral tributes to his tomb ; and 
thus North and South are cemented in perpetual 
unity, as the boys in blue and the boys in gray fling 
a bridge of roses across the bloody chasm. 

Time would fail me to recall the name of Seward, 
the wise Secretary, skilled in the arts of diplomacy, 
who never despaired of the Republic ; Sumner, the 
honorable Senator, who, as a scholar, statesman and 
orator, shone so brightly among men of renown — 



194 PATRIOTISM. 

unstained and pure in his patriotic devotion ; the 
invincible Stanton, bearing the stress of his coun- 
try's struggle on his great brain till it broke, and 
the long array of fallen braves who have gone down 
to their graves with the benediction of mankind 
upon them. But we must not forget — we cannot 
forget — another precious name. It brings to us a 
man of extraordinary mould, rugged in limb and 
strong ; his countenance scarred with seams of pa- 
tient thought, yet calm and tranquil, with a lambent 
glory resting upon it as if he had come from some 
mount of holy communion ; his voice sonorous as 
the notes of a clarion, yet pathetic and kindly, 
though, like Moses, slow of speech ; his complexion 
clear, the sign of purity in an age of grossness, and 
temperance in an age of excess ; his bearing digni- 
fied, though neither haughty nor graceful ; a skilled 
captain, a fine lawyer, an illustrious statesman, mag- 
nanimous in good fortune, unruffled in disaster ; a 
patriot whom no ingratitude could alienate ; a citi- 
zen whose sense of justice probed his own failings 
to the quick while it flung the mantle of its charity 
over the error of others. His only fault seemed an 
excess of virtue. If sometimes irresolute, it w T as 
only because he was loyal to truth and faithful to 
duty. If he failed in sagacity, it was only because 
his lofty purity could not realize the perfidy of 
others. Without signal genius, culture, or learning, 
he was faithful, sympathetic, and conscientious — his 
will so earnest, his heart so truthful, his hands so 



TIMES OF PERIL. 195 

pure, that he bore across the stormy wilderness of 
fear, and through mounting seas of blood, the civil 
constitution, which is to the nation its consecrated 
ark. Living in times of great peril, opulent with 
great opportunities, working with instruments man- 
ifold and mighty, such as had never been entrusted 
to man before, and never so nobly used, it was his 
pre-eminent privilege to reveal his character iD the 
work that made the dissevered nation a unit, and to 
make the principles through which it won its highest 
glory supreme in the confidence of his countrymen, 
as well as in the respect and admiration of the world. 

We remember him as the Hebrews remember 
Moses, for he was our deliverer. His name has 
become a household word. A whole race sing it by 
the cradles of their children. It is shrined in the 
heart of all races. It has become the watchword of 
freedom, the synonym of manly character. Having 
given intellect, energy, ambition to the service of 
his country and his kind, he has made humanity 
more hopeful and the world more free, and to-day 
he stands in the highest niche of the historic temple, 
unrivaled and alone. 

To-day the lingering mists of partisan prejudice 
may hang heavy clouds upon the glory of his fame, 
but when they shall dissolve in the flow of time, and 
the muse of history shall come to make up the list 
of her worthies, she shall put Moses for the Hebrew, 
Phocion for the Greek, Hampden for England, 
Fayette for France, Washington as the earliest 



196 PATRIOTISM. 

flower of our civilization, and opening a fresh un- 
stained page she shall record the life of one who 
embodied the nation's highest principles and noblest 
character, the bright consummate fruitage of Amer- 
ican institutions; the patriot and prophet of a new 
era, the statesman, the liberator, the martyr and the 
man — the illustrious Lincoln. 

And surely, while the sacred dust of these men 
sleep, in our soil, liberty shall not perish, and the 
Republic shall stand with her glory undimmed and 
her power unbroken. 

" They never fail who die 
In a great cause; the block may soak their gore, 
Their heads may sodden in the sun, their limbs 
Be strung to city gates and castle walls, 
But still their spirits walk abroad; though years 
Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, 
They but augment the deep of sweeping thoughts 
Which overpower all others, and conduct 
The world at last to freedom." 

Other issues were also secured, visible not only 
in an unbroken nationality, but in the re-animation 
of the world's confidence in the security, the re- 
sources and mighty energy of the principle of pop- 
ular government, in the quickening of the people of 
the Old World to an assertion of their long-sup- 
pressed rights. It was, therefore, for man, for thee, 
O Liberty! that we waged the terrible contest, that 
thy sacred privileges might be secured against the 
apathy of the free and prosperous, and the schemes 
of the despotic, for generations unborn. It was for 



SOCIAL ENERGY. 197 

Europe, for Asia, for Africa, for the race, that we 
fought and conquered. And the result is the ascen- 
dancy and rapidly-approaching signs of freedom in 
all nations. A French statesman exclaimed: U A 
new society is in existence, called Democratic. In 
one half of Europe it is already sovereign. It will 
be in the other half to-morrow." 

Thus a social energy is at work that liberates and 
expands. It opens the self-occupied understanding 
with ideas of universal brotherhood, through com- 
mon sufferings and hopes. It flashes a wave of 
light on the race, which spreads forever and bright- 
ens as it spreads. Every oppressed people feels and 
responds to the impulse. Foreign despots realize 
the power, and proffer such concessions as will keep 
popular discontent this side of revolution. The 
tendency to the fullest liberty of thought and the 
recognition of the rights of man pervades the nations. 
The new wine is bursting the rotten bottles of 
hereditary privilege. Royalty is forced to repair 
its ragged robes, which the people are ever rending, 
but the Sartor Resartus has to do his patching with 
popular suffrage and constitutional government — 
some fresh-woven bit from American looms. 

The armies of Freedom are on the march, and 
they are allied armies, before whose coming the 
empires of the Old World are shaken with terror. 
Victory to one gives prestige and confidence to all. 
To-day the English monarchy is convulsed through- 
out all the dominion of the beautiful Queen. 



198 PATRIOTISM. 

France, the centre of Europe's proudest civilization, 
often thrown into political spasms, has at last es- 
tablished the Republic, with some hope of its sta- 
bility. Spain, haughty in her pride, and imperial 
in her intolerance, responds to the ringing appeals 
of Castelar, who gathers his inspiration from our 
history, and will some day be free alike from civil 
tyranny and priestly domination. The great Ger- 
man family has struggled into unity, brought Teu- 
tonic Christianity to the front, and many of her best 
statesmen and brightest scholars long for free insti- 
tutions Italy — land of poetry, painting, music, 
and sculpture — land of bright-skied states — has ac- 
complished her unity and achieved a freedom which 
includes suffrage nearly universal, the habeas corpus, 
liberty of religious speech that even discusses the 
impossibility of Peter's primacy under the shadow 
of the Vatican, and establishes free schools in which 
the Word of God is read without fear or molesta- 
tion. Greece, the native home of eloquence and 
song, with her wondrous creations of beauty, has 
in these later days elected her own ruler. Russia, 
mighty empire of the north, an autocratic power, 
untrammelled by either constitution or law, relaxes 
her rigid iron grasp, manumits her serfs, and seeks 
the education of the innumerable tribes throbbing 
in her breast; and while the imperial power still ex- 
tends over all a dark, impenetrable canopy, beneath 
its shadow there is individual liberty and local self- 
government, with a restless yearning that menaces 



DAWN. 199 

the throne, and through patient waiting and much 
suffering promises the Eepublic by and by — at least 
a liberal constitutional monarchy, with representa- 
tive institutions. 

Thus liberty, like living seed, when planted, vivi- 
fies, expands, develops, and brings forth abundant 
fruit. And wherever it grows Despotism withers 
and dies; Democracy blooms and lives to reign as 
Queen of the Nations. Under her sway autocracy 
and caste find their doomsday. Partial privileges, 
unfraternal principalities and powers perish. An 
era of enlightened national government dawns upon 
mankind; for despite the evil passions and en- 
trenched abuses which surround us, the times are 
pregnant with great hopes. The old foundations of 
error, inequality, and superstition, usually anchored 
in adamant, are broken loose. The iron of bad 
customs and stolid usage, of fixed wrong and stereo- 
typed injustice, is all a fluid mass, melted in the fire 
of the world's contests. Men's minds are awake, 
sensitive, plastic. New and nobler ideas of hu- 
manity break forth with the emancipated millions, 
who drop their chains and loosen ours. The rights, 
the capacities, the hopes of mankind are all singing 
hosannas. A grand epoch has broken upon the 
world — an epoch that redeems us from low pur- 
poses and grovelling aims, and that should lift us 
into living sympathy with the grandeur of the ideas, 
the tendencies and the prophecies incarnated in the 
historic development of the times. 



200 PATRIOTISM. 

Brothers, the trumpet of God is sounding. It is 
not the bugle-call to battle. The roar of cannon 
and the rattle of musketry have ceased. The sabre 
and the bayonet flash only on parade. The bivouac, 
the camp, the march, are only a dream. The bat- 
talions hear no more the hoarse " Forward! " The 
shattered and glorious banners which you followed, 
and which we love so well, are carefully folded in 
legislative halls. The grass grows green over the 
soldier's lonely grave, and the bitter, moans of sor- 
row mellow into a song of sadness. The conflict of 
arms is over, but the conflict of ideas is not over, 
nor the trials of the people. The field is changed, 
and now in the work- shop, the home, and at the 
Capitol — through the press, on the platform, and in 
the pulpit — we must insist upon the maintenance of 
the peace for which our countrymen so nobly fought 
and so bravely died. We must seek to elevate the 
intellectual spirit of the nation and deepen the 
channel of its moral life. We are called upon by 
the sacred memories of this day, in view of our 
.needs and auspicious hopes, to cherish a lofty faith 
in the Eepublic, and to cause the nation to draw its 
nutriment and derive its impulse from the knowl- 
edge and love of the ideal America, as yet but par- 
tially reflected in our institutions or the general 
mind of the people. Thus quickened, it will become 
both pure and practical. We must have courage to 
meet our difficulties. We must remember that we 
have outgrown the past and that we have entered 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT. 201 

upon a new and high national life. There need be 
no rancor nor needless recrimination. We must be 
inspired with hope. We must stand together. We 
must forget and forgive. We must rub out old 
animosities and take a fresh, unstained parchment 
fit to receive the lines and lessons of a later time. 
We must carry hopeful hearts and cheerful brows. 
We must fill the veins of education and the organ- 
ization of industry with the spirit of liberty. We 
must mould the life of the nation by the force of 
great moral ideas, and rule through the royalty of 
principle that can never be discrowned. Let them 
have an unquestioned light of supremacy and create 
a dynasty of moral forces that shall be supreme. 
Let intelligence, freedom, law, religion — the four 
immovable pillars of communal morality — stand 
forever the basis of our institutions and the guide 
of our Rulers in their administration. Then shall 
we be able to show forth the glory of our land — of 
the new age — and to meet the urgent and precious 
invitations of this new epoch. 

They tell us it is a degenerate age— an age of 
materialism, given to pelf and plunder. It is not 
so. Men as knightly and brave as ever graced 
heroic age still live, and would willingly die for the 
defence of the Republic. The American spirit still 
survives. The fires of patriotism are fanned into a 
vestal flame ; honor thrives, and noble characters 
adorn the high places of the land. Loyalty has not 
perished. Myriads of heroic spirits look upon the 



202 PATRIOTISM. 

nation's ensign and cry, "My country's flag ; em- 
blem of a nation that covers half a continent ; hope 
of a people that loves liberty ; blazonry of the rights 
of man, before thee I bow ; the symbol of a nation's 
glory, to thee my allegiance, for thee my prayers ; 
and if, in bearing thee through the fiery storms and 
deadly hail, my blood should flow in a crimson tide, 
under thy starry folds would I find my grave." 

Oh, Soldier ! look not back to the fearful strug- 
gle alone ; meditate not upon thy scars, so honora- 
bly won, but look forward to the fruit of your sac- 
rifices ! Oh, Patriot ! mourn not the desolation of 
the past. Lift up thine eyes and behold the temple 
of Freedom — a Nation's Home, paved with the 
lively stones of great principles — its arches resound- 
ing with the songs of freedom and festooned with 
flags torn and rent in battle ; its ceiling resplendent 
with the ever-burning stars and ribbed with the un- 
fading stripes of that banner which has become the 
symbol of hope to oppressed millions. See its win- 
dows stained with the blood of martyred youth, the 
pride and glory of their generation. Bow at its 
altars, and you shall read the original Declaration 
of our Fathers bound in with the Book of Life, and 
find it a New Testament for the political future of 
all nations. Around you are gathered the arts, 
sciences, and industries of an earnest people, which 
have become conscious instruments of public intelli- 
gence, common happiness, and social good ; you 
may see wealth consecrated to usefulness, genius 



TRIBES OF THE WORLD. 203 

anointed with faith, beauty bending in prayer, and 
inclination wedded with duty. Into this glorious 
temple a teeming agriculture brings her yellow 
sheaves, rejoicing that she may banquet on her vir- 
gin acres the world's hungry millions. The moun- 
tains unlock their wealth and heap their richest treas- 
ure against the monolithic pillars. Nay, greater 
than these material glories, we behold the tribes of 
the Old World — of Europe, of the Flowery King- 
dom, of India, and the Isles of the Sea — filing into 
the wide portals, their banners written all over with 
gratitude and hope, seeking to inaugurate that royal 
age when the races shall meet together and dwell in 
peace ; when men of all nations shall stand side by 
side as brothers in the majesty of awakened con- 
science, with large hearts, filled with loyalty and 
love, unblenched before the pride of power, with 
faith untiring and heroism that fails not amidst haz- 
ard and hardship, and is ever radiant with the truth — 
men who shall put knowledge below culture, culture 
below character, and Christianity over all, as the 
chief hope of humanity. Then we may exclaim 
with the poet: 

"Lo, another age is rising — in the coming years I see 
Hopes and promises of blessing, light, and love, and liberty; 
All the good the past hath garnered, all the present yet hath 

won, 
Fade before the glorious future, like the stars before the sun. 
Truth, for every eye is shining in the fullness of that day, 
Joy and hope, decended angels, rest, no more to pass away; 
Freedom comes and lifts the captive fron^ the dungeon of 

his woe, 



204 PATRIOTISM. 

And all streams of mortal being deeper, purer, sweeter flow. 
There, the thunder of the captains and their shoutings die 

away, 
Melting into love's sweet music, like the darkness into day; 
And the chorus of the Nations, as the rolling years increase, 
Rises in harmonious numbers, peaceful, to the Prince of 

Peace." 



